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

After a few hectic months, I'd booked a week or so off work so that we could take the kids up to see their grand-parents. I originally hale from Glasgow and my parents still live there. My sister works in Edinburgh as a special-needs teacher and recently had a baby girl, so the plan was during the...   [Continue Reading]


Tags:  offtopic deduplication

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

I completely missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago for version 7.8.1 of the Spectrum Virtualize software. Traveling too much at the end of last month and forgot to post an update on whats new. This release I am dubbing the ‘customer council’ release. Last year we started a...   [Continue Reading]

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]

7.8.0 Spectrum Virtualize Back in November we announce the 7.8 updates for SVC, Storwize and V9000 - the products running Spectrum Virtualize software, and a new expansion enclosure offering over 1.4PB RAW capacity in just 5U rack space… Transparent Cloud Tiering TCT is IBM’s general...   [Continue Reading]

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

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

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

Spectrum Virtualize Quorum Happy New Year to all. I’ve been getting a few questions relating to quorum devices, and in particular the IP quorum and what happens when various different failure scenarios occur. I thought it was worth detailing things here. So first some background. What are...   [Continue Reading]

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

First trip in new role has been to Christchurch for the last couple of days. Some good meetings with Business Partners to see the lay of the land here, and look over some interesting prospects being worked on. The recent FlashSystem V9000 announcement, which I didn't cover in my absence during...   [Continue Reading]