Earlier this week, Jon Erickson from Forrester Reserch, and Chris Saul from IBM, co-presented a webcast on the economic impact of using SAN Volume Controller for storage virtualization. The event was co-sponsored by IBM, InformationWeek, and UBM TechWeb, The Global Leader in Business Technology Media, a Division of UBM LLC. Jon spoke first, covering the cost savings and financial benefits of using SAN Volume Controller in your environment. His analysis shows a payback period of only 18 months!

Chris Saul (IBM) then covered the latest features introduced last June for SAN Volume Controller v6.4 release. Many of these features are available on older hardware models of SAN Volume Controller. One of the most exciting features is Real-time Compression.

If you missed the webcast, you can listen to the [Replay]. There is also a [whitepaper] if you prefer that format.

The Real-time Compression benefits can vary by the type of data compressed. Some data compresses only 20% savings. Other data compresses 80% or more. The best way to find out how much Compression would benefit your environment is to run the [IBM Comprestimator Tool] that runs against your own data!

If you are constantly battling out-of-space conditions, and would like to make extra room on your existing storage devices, your dreams have come true!

technorati tags: IBM, Forrester, ROI, SAN Volume Controller, SVC, Real-time Compression, RTC, Comprestimator

Tags:  san+volume+controller roi compresstimator rtc real-time+compression svc forrester ibm

IBM has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (TMS), a privately held Houston, Texas-based company with about 100 employees, that focuses on solid-state flash optimized systems and solutions, including the RamSan family of external rack-mounted storage, as well as PCIe cards for internal storage that fit inside servers.

I've mentioned Solid-State Drive storage quite a few times over the past few years in this blog, which included some great interactions with my friends over at Texas Memory Systems. Here's a quick look:

December 2006

In my now infamous blog post [Hybrid, Solid State and the future of RAID], I resort to a deck of [Tarot cards] in an effort to fight [writer's block] responding to query about combining solid-state with spinning disk. In the original post, I poked fun at Texas Memory Systems having the slogan "World's Fastest Storage".  Woody Hutsell, then VP of marketing for Texas Memory Systems, explained that the reason that TMS did not have faster benchmark results was because it did not have a million dollars to buy the fastest IBM UNIX server.

January 2008

In my post [Good News and Bad News], I mentioned that Texas Memory Systems has an impressive SPC benchmark result. The Storage Performance Council [SPC] publishes the benchmarking industry standard by which all block-based storage devices are measured. It looks like the TMS performance test department finally got the million-dollar IBM server they needed for this.  

My colleagues in marketing were not amused, afraid that mentioning small companies like TMS would give them a huge boost in marketing awareness, above and beyond what TMS could do on their own modest marketing budget, similar to the [Colbert Bump]. I could call it the Pearson Bump. If you first heard of Texas Memory Systems from my blog, or bought TMS products based on my discussion, please post a comment below!

August 2008

IBM made history as the first major storage vendor to [break the 1 million IOPS barrier with Solid State Disk]. The project was known as "Quicksilver", and was able to demonstrate that a product like SAN Volume Controller with Solid-State Drives (SSD) can indeed provide a significant boost in performance to external disk arrays. The IBM 2145-CF8 and 2145-CG8 models allow up to four SSD in each node. I was asked not to blog the entire month of August, so that our upcoming September announcements would get more notice, but I couldn't resist covering Quicksilver. The original post had mentioned Texas Memory Systems, but were later removed to avoid the "Pearson Bump".

August 2011

In my post [Day 2 IBM Storage University - Solutions Expo - TMS After-party], I mentioned that I attended the TMS after-party. Texas Memory Systems had just been qualified as Solid-State Drive (SSD) storage behind the IBM SAN Volume Controller, and the two products work extremely well together for IBM Easy Tier, the sub-volume automated tiering capability to optimize storage performance. I was able to catch up with my friend Erik Eyberg, and meet CEO and Founder Holly Frost.

Last year, IBM published the results of the [2011 IBM IT Decision Makers Survey]. Some of the key findings:

• Nearly half (43 percent) of IT decision makers say they have plans to use SSD technology in the future or are already using it in their datacenter. Solid-state can refer to both volatile Random Access Memory (RAM) and non-volatile Flash, and Texas Memory Systems has built solutions around both types. The survey question referred to non-volatile Flash Solid-State Drives (SSD) that do not require a battery to keep the data from fading away after the power goes out. Nearly all storage in the datacenter has volatile Random Access Memory (RAM).
  
  
• Speeding delivery of data was the motivation behind 75 percent of respondents who plan to use or already use SSD technology. I would have thought this would have been 100 percent, but the other options included reduced energy consumption, and improved drive reliability, which are both also true with Solid-State Drives.
  
  
• However, for those who were not using SSD today, the major factor was cost, according to 71 percent of respondents. On a Dollar-per-GB basis, Solid-State Drives continue to be anywhere from 10 to 25 times more expensive spinning disk. Last year's tsunami in Japan, and the floods in Thailand, have caused spinning disk prices to rise to cover component shortages, thereby shrinking the price gap between SSD and spinning disk.
  
  
• Nearly half (48 percent) say they plan on increasing storage investments in the area of virtualization, cloud (26 percent) and flash memory/solid state (24 percent) and analytics (22 percent).

To learn more about this announcement, read the [IBM Press Release], or visit the [IBM System Storage landing page].

technorati tags: IBM, Texas Memory Systems, TMS, Woody Hutsell, Solid-state, NAND, SSD

Tags:  nand texas+memory+systems tms woody+hutsell ssd ibm solid+state

I am back from lovely Taipei. The IBM Top Gun class went well. Here are a few pictures of things I found interesting while I was there.

On the first day of class, I asked for some coffee. Our lovely class assistant, Ashley, brought me a cup with an interesting paper filter hanging on the edge. I have since learned that there are two drinks never to order in Taiwan: coffee and wine. If you enjoy either, you won't here. Instead, I drank the local "Taiwan Beer" and various types of tea.

Our class was on the 14th floor of the building, and there was this warning sign posted in the elevator. I have no idea what Chinese characters say, but we found the cartoon depictions of elevator dangers amusing. We interpreted the lower left corner to mean "Don't let your evil twin sister push you out of a moving elevator!"

I have to say that the variety of food was excellent. One night, we had dinner at a [Spanish Tapas] restaurant. The Spanish had a settlement on Taiwan island, known as Formosa back then, until driven out by the Dutch in 1642. We also had a traditional Chinese lunch, with dumplings, pickled cabbage, and "Lion's Head" soup.

From the classroom floor, we could see the Taipei 101 building, considered the third [tallest skyscraper in the world]. This wasn't here the last time I was in Taiwan.

On the last day, we were treated to some [Bubble tea], a specialty drink that originated in Taiwan in the 1980's. The straw was unusually thick, about twice as thick as a normal straw. We quickly figured out why. It was so that we could slurp up the brown floating things at the bottom. We didn't realize this until after the first sip. These floaties were actually Boba Tapioca pearls. The tea itself was delicious and sweet.

Special thanks to Joe Ebidia for managing the class, his assistant Ashley, and our local support team Justin and Stewart. I would also like to thank the staff at the Sherwood Hotel.

technorati tags: IBM, Joe Ebidia, Top Gun, Sales Training, Taipei 101, Bubble Tea

Tags:  bubble+tea sales+training top+gun joe+ebidia taipei+101 ibm

This week, I am in Taipei, teaching Top Gun class. There was concern that another typhoon would hit the island of Taiwan later this week, but it looks like it is now headed for Hong Kong instead.

Elsewhere in the world, there are several events going on next week, so I thought I would bring them to your attention.

ECTY - South Africa

Next week, Jerry Kluck, IBM Global Sales Executive for Storage Optimization and Integration Services, will be the keynote speaker at "Edge Comes to You" (ECTY) conference in South Africa. This is a one-day event, similar to the [ECTY event in Moscow, Russia] that I spoke at last June.

Here is the schedule for South Africa next week:

• Monday, August 20, 2012 - Johannesburg
• Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - Cape Town

(I have been to both Jo'burg and Cape Town back in 1994. A month after Apartheid had just ended, I was part of a small group of IBMers sent to re-establish IBM's business operations there. I would have liked to have attended the events next week, not just to hear Jerry speak, but also to see how much the country has changed over the past 18 years, but I could not get a work permit in time.)

If you are interested in attending either of these next week, contact your local IBM Business Partner or sales rep to attend.

Forrester's Total Economic Impact Study of Virtualized Storage

Virtualized storage can help organizations stretch their storage investment dollar and storage administration and management resources. Jon Erickson from Forrester Research will review the latest findings from IBM SAN Volume Control (SVC) users studied as part of the recently completed Forrester Total Economic Impact Study of IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller.

• Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2012
• Time: 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT
• Duration: 60 minutes

Among the findings, users were able to:

• Avoid the capital cost of additional storage
• Increase IT productivity
• Provide greater end user data availability

The second presenter is Chris Saul, IBM Storage Virtualization Manager, who will explain how SVC can manage heterogeneous disk from a single point of control, autonomously manage tiered disk storage and can store up to five times as much data on your existing disk using IBM Real-time Compression.

To sign up for this webcast, visit the [Registration page].

Does Your Virtualization Platform Matter?

Not all virtualization solutions are created equal! That's true for storage virtualization, like the SAN Volume Controller mentioned above, and it's true for server virtualization as well.

This webcast discusses the real-world impact on businesses that deploy IBM's PowerVM® virtualization technology as compared to those using Oracle® VM for SPARC (OVM SPARC), Microsoft® Hyper-V, VMware® vSphere or other competing products.

• Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012
• Time: 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT
• Duration: 60 minutes

This webcast will include findings from a [Solitaire Interglobal] study of over 61,000 customer sites on the value of virtualization from a business perspective and how IBM's PowerVM provides real business value.

Other key discussion points that will be covered during this webcast include:

• Behavioral characteristics of server virtualization technologies that were examined and analyzed from survey participant's environments
• How IT colleagues were able to obtain a faster time-to-market for business initiatives when using IBM PowerVM
• Why the learning curve time for PowerVM is as much as 2.58 times faster than for other offerings
• Why VM reboot comparisons for PowerVM vs competitive platforms resulted in downtime of 5.5 times less than with other options
• A TCO reduction of up to 71.4% for PowerVM compared to alternative options

This webcast will also feature an in-depth discussion on the IBM PowerVM solution from an IBM product expert who will share the unique virtualization features available when PowerVM is utilized within the IBM Power Systems™ environment.

To sign up for this webcast, go to the [Registration page]

technorati tags: IBM, South Africa, ECTY, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Chris Saul, SAN Volume Controller, SVC, PowerVM, VMware, vSphere, Microsoft, Hyper-V, Oracle, SPARC, OVM

Tags:  powervm vsphere san+volume+controller microsoft svc south+africa chris+saul johannesburg hyper-v sparc ecty ibm oracle cape+town vmware ovm