IBM CSM Flash Copy Manager for z/OS (CSMFCM) was designed to provide fast and efficient integration and exploitation into DS8000 z/OS batch job environments. It provides the ability to discover and build FlashCopy configurations from the batch environment with mix-and-match capabilities using z/OS concepts such as DFSMS specifications, Storage Groups, VOLSERs, devices etc. It integrates with z/OS, provides ISPF panels to manage configurations and build the required jobs as well as automating relabeling of FlashCopy targets to take them online... [More]

Tags:  csm system_z flash ibm csmfcm copy manager

True flash architecture – that means being designed for the purpose of ultra-high performance from scratch, and not being limited by a Device Adapter, or FC-AL shortcomings. If you look at the specs of typical SSDs of today, each single drive could do tens of thousands of IOps, but when it comes to creating a RAID across a small pack of these, then we see the real results. Traditional architectures often also call themselves “flash”, but in fact were just using SSDs and kept putting them behind the same Device Adapters that... [More]

Tags:  ds8870 all-flash flash high-performance ds8000 hpfe r7.3 mainframe mainz escc

Flash storage, cloud and data analytics are three technologies which impose significant change to storage. All three cover three different aspects. I have noticed that a clear definition of these topics is beneficial for discussions about storage. Here are my definitions:   1. Cloud Storage Cloud (storage) is imposing disruptive change to IT by offering a very cost effective delivery model which forces vendors, providers and customers to optimize hardware, software and operations for the new cloud delivery model. This puts huge pressure... [More]

Tags:  flash analytics cloud

It's like big family which gathers for an annual reunion, and by saying big, I mean really big. More than 250 customers, business partners and IBMers gathered for the fifth "SVC & Storwize User Day" in Mainz, Germany with attendees from all over Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Speakers from those countries but also from Israel, USA and UK gave insights on history and future of the SVC & Storwize product family. Several customers from small to big business presented their experiences of implementing their storage... [More]

Tags:  ibm_storage mainz 2145 v7000 svc storage flash storwize flashsystem

I recently read a wikibon article I must have missed two and a half months ago when it was published. Scott Lowe wrote IBM’s FlashSystem Isn’t For Mainstream CIOs…yet . In summary he appreciates IBM's efforts to drive flash technology forward but he clearly sees all-flash arrays being in the early adopters phase and only interesting for special clients with special workloads (other than "mainstream CIOs" ). The world doesn't seem to be ready for flash. But it really is.   Maybe Scott changed his mind... [More]

Tags:  flash flashsystem latency all-flash mainstream performance cio easy_tier storwize