IBM Virtual Storage Center

IBM Virtual Storage Center is a storage solution that provides efficient management, data protection, and virtualization for heterogeneous storage environments. It helps enhance storage efficiency, provides greater mobility, and delivers stronger control over storage performance and management.

Under a single license, IBM Virtual Storage Center includes the following products:

IBM Spectrum Control
IBM Copy Services Manager
IBM Spectrum® Protect™ Snapshot
IBM Storage Virtualize for IBM SAN Volume Controller, including all the functions available with storage virtualization, data reduction pools, HyperSwap® high availability, hybrid cloud and container support, and remote mirroring and FlashCopy® (snapshot).

The following key benefits are available with IBM Virtual Storage Center:

Simplified storage management and reporting
Virtualized physical storage resources for improved asset utilization
Snapshot-based protection for the databases and applications that are used by IBM Spectrum Control
Easy data mobility across pools and tiers of storage systems that use IBM Spectrum Virtualize
Ability to change storage and move data without taking applications down
Centralized management for visibility, control, and automation
Helps improve the efficiency and productivity for storage management staff

For more details on what IBM Virtual Storage Center can do for your business, see https://www.ibm.com/products/virtual-storage-center

Licensing options

IBM Virtual Storage Center is available in three editions, each with different license options to best fit your needs:

Table 1. Licensing options for each of the IBM Virtual Storage Center editions
Product	Licensing	Why Choose This Edition
IBM Virtual Storage Center (perpetual license)	Measured by the number of storage capacity units (SCUs) that are needed to cover the total usable capacity in tebibytes (TiB) of your storage.	You use an IBM SAN Volume Controller as your storage virtualization engine and your total usable capacity is more than 1,500 TiBs. You want to sign up for a perpetual license.
IBM Virtual Storage Center (subscription license)	Measured by the total usable capacity in tebibytes (TiB) of your storage.	You use an IBM SAN Volume Controller as your storage virtualization engine and your total usable capacity is more than 1,500 TiBs. You want to pay for your license on a monthly basis with a flexible term length, have an initial lower cost, and use the familiar Passport Advantage® (PA) system to manage your contract.
IBM Virtual Storage Center Entry (formerly known as IBM Virtual Storage Center Entry Edition)	Measured by the total usable capacity in tebibytes (TiB) of your storage, with the following limits: Up to 1,500 TiBs of usable capacity No limit I/O groups	You use an IBM SAN Volume Controller as your storage virtualization engine and your total usable capacity is less than 1,500 TiBs.
IBM Virtual Storage Center for IBM Storwize	Measured by the number of licenses that are needed for the storage enclosures, modules, or expansions of your storage.	You use an IBM Storwize or FlashSystem 5100 storage system in your environment.

When you subscribe to the IBM® Virtual Storage Center license, you also receive IBM's Software Subscription and Support, which includes the following support options for the length of the subscription:

Download access to the latest versions, releases, and fixes of the solutions in the IBM Virtual Storage Center license.
IBM support for routine installation, deployment, migration, usage, and code-related technical support questions.
24x7 assistance for Severity 1 issues 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Simply open a case from the web, chat, or phone.

For the perpetual IBM Virtual Storage Center license, an SCU is the measure of capacity by which the license is charged. The number of SCUs is based on the drive classes that are used by your storage systems and the capacity that is assigned to each category. The following table shows the SCU categories, drive classes, and ratios:

Table 2. Supported SCU licenses, drive classes, and ratios
Category	Drive Classes	Ratio of usable storage to SCU
1	Storage Class Memory (SCM) drives and managed disks on IBM Storage Virtualize for Public Cloud	1 TiB to 1 SCU
2	Flash and Solid-State Drives (SSDs)	1 TiB to 0.847 SCU 1.18 TiB to 1 SCU
3	10K Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Drives, 15K Fibre Channel Drives, and storage systems that use Category 4 drives with advanced architectures	1 TiB to 0.5 SCU 2 TiB to 1 SCU
4	Near Line SAS (NL-SAS), Serial ATA (SATA) Drives, and Safeguarded Copy (SGC) Target Capacity	1 TiB to 0.25 SCU 4 TiB to 1 SCU
Tips: Any storage capacity that uses drive classes that are not listed in the table is classified as Category 1. Calculations are rounded up to the nearest whole number.

What's included in IBM Virtual Storage Center

The following features are available in all editions of IBM Virtual Storage Center:

Storage monitoring, reporting, and optimization for storage systems, hypervisors, servers, fabrics, and switches. Available on-premises or from IBM Cloud®.
3-site replication management
Application-aware backup and restore operations with snapshot technologies of advanced storage systems
External storage virtualization
Easy Tier®
FlashCopy
Metro Mirror and Global Mirror

The following features are not included in an any edition of IBM Virtual Storage Center:

IBM Storage Virtualize Software for IBM SAN Volume Controller Real-time Compression Software V8
IBM Storage Virtualize Software for IBM SAN Volume Controller Encryption Software

How to get IBM Virtual Storage Center

No matter which edition that you choose, IBM Virtual Storage Center can help save you time and money. It brings together storage management, monitoring, reporting, replication, and virtualization capabilities in one, comprehensive storage solution. You don't need to worry about shopping on your own for the best storage products to help meet your needs -- IBM has already done for that for you with IBM Virtual Storage Center.

To find out more about your purchasing options for IBM Virtual Storage Center, contact your IBM Business Partner or local IBM representative. In the US, to identify your IBM Business Partner or local IBM representative, you can call 800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).