Today marks the next phase, or the beginning of a series of announcements, previews and strategy updates from IBM Storage. The splash page for todays launch is over on the storage news pages - this includes R4.3 of DS8000, adding thin provisioning for open systems and mutli-track support for System...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  ds8000 storage svc dynamic_infrastructure information_infrastructur... xiv

There's been much discussion on the inter-web thing and the blogosphere regarding the various RFA (Release for Announce) documents IBM provides prior to official press-releasing products. Well with so much to cover the IBM Information Infrastructure event in France this week was chosen as the launch...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  ibm storage

Two posts in one week. Doing well. I set one of my resolutions this year to post at least once a week – hence my new numbering scheme. Maybe I’ll use the fact that 2010-2.2 and further double posts count for the odd week I may miss :)   Benchmarketing. It’s a dodgy term, and even dodgier maths. We...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  spc emc performance storage ibm svc

I still haven't finished sorting out the photos from the German SVC User Group session I attended last month, but here is your chance to come and visit us in IBM Hursley, the home of SVC development. This event is open to SVC users, primarily in the UK, however if you fancy a trip to the UK in May...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  storage virtualization svc

Our eldest son (just turned 5) has been on school holidays for the last few weeks - driving my wife round the twist and winding his little sister up a treat at the same time. Today was my last day in the office for a week or so and we have the usual 'kids' stuff planned for next week. Anyway, my son...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  internet

Two posts in the one day - that's probably a record for me, but this one is really just a link. An interesting interview with IBM Storage General Manager, Andy Monshaw over at eWeek . Andy describes, amongst other things, some of the customer business benefits Storage Virtualization can bring, some...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  svc ibm virtualization storage

Today we are have made available IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Version 4.2.1 with more function than previously announced, including new VMware support, and also announced that IBM has passed an historic milestone by shipping its 10,000th SVC node. A press release issued today (see...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  copy+services virtualization svc storage

With the GA of IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) v4.2.1 only a couple of weeks away, its been the usual last minute rush to get the last few code changes benchmarked on my performance stand. Luckily the set of scripts and tools I inherited, and have modified over the years, allow 24x7 benchmarking,...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  flash+copy virtualization storage svc

I must admit that one of the things I have looked forward to this year has been the Saturday qualifying and Sunday race days in the Formula 1 calendar. It's been a great F1 season so far, not just because I'm a Brit (well Scotsman abroad - Coulhtard was always British when he won... ) Nobody, least...   [Continue Reading]

I've been head down for the last few weeks, getting a chance to enhance a chunk of code in the middle of the SVC code stack for the next release, the cache. SVC caching is based on an LRU (Least Recently Used) cache model with partitioning added to make things cope with differing capabilities of the...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  storage svc ibm

It seems hard to believe that its been a year since my first post on this blog. As it seems with all things as we get older, in some ways it seems only yesterday, but in other ways its feels like I've always been here... Anyway, just a quickie post to say thanks to all my readers, comment-ers, and...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  blogging

I was a little out of my normal loop the last week or two. This week is full with customer and potential customer visits. Today we had an SVC stalwart customer visit, to not only provide some great feedback on how SVC has over the last 5 years helped them to reclaim their lives (storage admins can...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  hursley solid+state svc ibm

2008-2010 plus... ??? With all that history of ground breaking products, real innovation, first to market with a real working virtualization solution - I guess the question is... What next??? Hopefully I'll see some of you in London on Thursday for the UK Launch event... if you haven't yet...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  svc midrange storage virtualization

I've been off the radar for a few weeks... A decision I'd made myself, its been a hectic year, and I realised I'd been spending too much time at/with work and not enough with the family. So I decided, despite only being a Scotsman abroad (ok abroad meaning south of the border) I'd take at least the...   [Continue Reading]