What IBM's SAN384C-6 can do for your business
A next-generation, director-class SAN switch designed for deployment in large-scale storage networks, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 Multilayer Director enables enterprise clouds for business transformation. By adding enterprise connectivity options that support FICON, SAN384C-6 delivers a high-performing and reliable FICON infrastructure designed to support fast and scalable z Systems servers. Sharing the same operating system and management interface with other IBM Storage Networking c-type switches, IBM SAN384C-6 enables seamless deployment of unified fabrics with high-performance FC connectivity to achieve low total cost of ownership.
Benefits
Prepare for cloud and big data
Help future-proof the data center for cloud and big data.
Combines large scale networks
Combine large-scale storage networks and multiple storage protocols on a single converged network.
Leverages SAN technology
Attain high availability with fully redundant components, benefit from virtual SAN technology, access control lists and intelligent frame processing.
Supports large storage networks
Enables large, scalable deployment of storage area network (SAN) extension solutions with 24/10-port SAN Extension Module.
Key features of IBM SAN384C-6 Multilayer Director
Lowers TCO with SAN consolidation
With the exponential growth of data in today’s smarter business
environments, organizations must deploy large-scale SANs in
the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. To meet
scalability requirements while managing total cost of ownership
SAN384C-6 offers various capabilities to enable organizations to consolidate their data assets into fewer, larger and more manageable SANs. It helps reduce the data-center hardware footprint and associated capital and operational expenses.
Leverages IBM Storage Networking c-type family components
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 shares the same operating system and management interface as other IBM Storage Networking c-type switches, which enables seamless fabric deployment with high-performance Fibre Channel, FICON and FCIP connectivity. The 48-port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module delivers outstanding performance and innovative features that empower scalability and intelligence in large, virtualized data-center deployments.
Provides enterprise-class availability
Beyond meeting the basic requirements of non-disruptive software upgrades and redundancy of critical hardware components, IBM Storage Networking c-type family software architecture offers an outstanding level of availability. It provides redundancy on all major hardware components, including supervisor modules, fabric modules, power supplies and fan trays. Additionally, it is designed to exceed 99.999 percent uptime.
Transforms businesses with enterprise cloud deployment
SAN384C-6 is designed to provide outstanding scalability and pay-as-you-grow flexibility, robust security for multi-tenancy cloud applications, the predictable high performance required to meet strict service level agreements (SLAs), the resilient connectivity required for no-downtime cloud infrastructures, and the advanced traffic management capabilities—such as quality of service—needed to quickly and cost-efficiently allocate elastic network capabilities to cloud applications.
Simplifies IT management
To meet the needs of any user, SAN384C-6 provides three principal management modes: the IBM Storage Networking c-type family command-line interface (CLI), DCNM and integration with third-party storage-management tools. It leverages the IBM Storage Networking c-type family's easy-to-learn CLI to deliver broad management capabilities. This extremely efficient and direct interface is designed to provide consistent, logical, optimal capabilities to administrators in enterprise environments.
Supports robust security
Addressing the need for foolproof security in storage networks,
the SAN384C-6 and the 48-port 32-Gbps line card offer an extensive security framework to protect the highly sensitive data crossing today’s enterprise networks. It employs intelligent packet inspection at the port level, including the application of access control lists (ACLs) for hardware enforcement of zones, VSANs and advanced port security features.
Offers advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting tools
Managing large-scale storage networks requires proactive diagnostics tools to verify connectivity and route latency, as well as mechanisms to capture and analyze network traffic. SAN384C-6 provides comprehensive port-based and flow-based statistics that enable sophisticated performance analysis and SLA accounting. Plus, an integrated Call Home capability can add reliability, speed problem resolution and help reduce service costs.