- New program increases the lifetime of storage investments
with purchase protection and flexibility
- New IBM Flash Grid technology simplifies storage
management
ARMONK,
N.Y., April 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced new storage capabilities that give clients
choice and control in the data center to maximize performance. A
new IT life cycle management option called IBM Storage Assurance
provides access to IBM FlashSystem hardware and software
innovations to help protect clients' investments from day
one. IBM Storage Assurance supports the new IBM FlashSystem
5300 also announced today, as well as the FlashSystem 7300 and
FlashSystem 9500.
According to recent research from TechTarget's Enterprise
Strategy Group, 48% of companies expect to increase their IT
spending in 2024. At the same time, IBM sees that organizations are
looking for opportunities to maximize their spending without
sacrificing performance. The IBM Storage Assurance program, which
complements existing consumption models for IBM Storage as a
Service and IBM Storage Utility, provides a path to simplifying the
storage ownership experience with the expectation of extending the
lifetime of clients' storage investments.
Learn more about IBM Storage Assurance
"Our research indicates that IT organizations are looking for
greater flexibility in how they acquire and sustain their storage,"
said Simon Robinson, Principal
Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, part of TechTarget. "IBM's
Storage Assurance program is designed to provide ongoing hardware
and software upgrades while also offering budget certainty. With
IBM providing this additional level of support for their storage
systems, organizations can focus on their business priorities."
Transforming Storage Ownership
IBM's Storage Assurance model offers a modern approach to IT
lifecycle management with a subscription that provides regular
hardware and software upgrades plus premium-level Expert Care
support to help keep storage infrastructure up to date while
seeking to address downtime, disruptive migrations, and recurring
purchases. The new program is designed to minimize procurement
obstacles and traditional storage lifecycle management challenges.
Key benefits for the IBM FlashSystem 5300, 7300, and 9500 include
the ability to:
- Leverage whole system refreshes with comprehensive
updates across drives, controllers, software, etc.
- Plan storage needs from day one with a cutting-edge
all-NVMe FlashSystem portfolio designed for the most performance
and data-intensive workloads supporting today's businesses.
- Protect business, applications, and data with IBM's
patented computational storage architecture enabled with
hardware-accelerated and AI-augmented cyber threat detection.
- Safeguard storage purchases with a
subscription that includes performance and lifecycle-based
hardware and software upgrades over flat and transparently priced
4- or 8-year terms.1
- Get access to the latest IBM FlashSystem
innovations in hardware and software with technology designed
for non-disruptive migrations.
- Experience contract flexibility with the ability
to receive a trade-in credit for out-of-cycle upgrades.
- Access IBM's premium-level Expert
Care support program, which is included with IBM
Storage Assurance.
"We are excited to introduce our customers to the new IBM
Storage Assurance program. This program offers full-system hardware
refreshes and software upgrades, all covered by SLAs and a flat
pricing contract," said David
Howard, Senior Consultant, Converge Technology Solutions.
"With this new program, our clients can enjoy budget certainty and
meet their business needs. We're confident that this new program
will bring many benefits to our clients."
This new program is designed to help clients stay
at the forefront of technological advances in IBM FlashSystem
storage by providing an upgrade path to address end-of-support,
capacity ceilings, and operating system requirements.
"IBM Storage Assurance challenges the status quo of enterprise
storage with a program that delivers client focused guarantees,
computational storage with AI-powered data services, and an
all-inclusive software integration designed to address customers'
most pressing problems, including a path for them to adopt future
innovations from IBM," said Denis
Kennelly, General Manager of IBM Storage. "As organizations
feel increased pressures to maximize financial resources, improve
operational agility, adopt energy efficient solutions, and
safeguard their data, we are delivering with our intelligent, and
simple all-flash portfolio."
To further simplify storage management, optimize workload
performance, and promote non-disruptive operations, IBM is also
announcing IBM Flash Grid technology and Policy Based High
Availability enhancements. IBM Flash Grid allows clients to manage
storage systems as a highly available and independently scalable
environment, from a single control pane, with the ability to move
workloads between FlashSystem devices. Key benefits include:
- Simplified management: Clients can aggregate IBM
FlashSystem devices and manage them as a single scalable storage
grid, engineered for high availability, replication, and
non-disruptive application data migrations.
- AIOps automation and simulation: Clients can use
AI-powered workload simulation to determine the best placement for
workloads on the IBM Flash Grid.
In addition, IBM is announcing FlashSystem policy-based
replication and high availability that is designed to provide
easy-to-use, high-performance solutions for disaster recovery by
enabling the system to automatically deploy and manage replication
between two systems with minimal overhead, higher throughput, and
lower latency. In the second half of 2024, IBM intends to further
enhance these features to support highly available storage with
replication to a third system, to simplify the tasks associated
with configuring, managing, and monitoring replication.
IBM FlashSystem provides enhanced data resilience with the
recently announced IBM FlashCore Module 4's cyber threat detection
capabilities. All these capabilities will be available for the new
IBM FlashSystem 5300 also unveiled today.
"We have IBM SAN Volume Controller sitting in front of all our
storage, and IBM FlashSystem allows us to harness specific IBM
functions. It's fast, reliable, secure, and easy to manage," said
Kai Leibkuchler, Senior Manager of
System & Network Engineering at Amadeus. "I am excited to see
the new enhancements in IBM FlashSystem 5300."
Both IBM's Storage Assurance program and the IBM FlashSystem
5300 are now generally available. IBM Storage Assurance supports
the new FlashSystem 5300, as well as FlashSystem 7300 and
FlashSystem 9500. Learn more about IBM Storage Assurance here and
the IBM FlashSystem 5300 here.
IBM's statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent
are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM's sole
discretion. The development, release, and timing of any future
features or functionality described for our products remain at our
sole discretion.
Media Contact
Alexandra
Demetriades
IBM Communications
alexandra.demetriades@ibm.com
1 The 8-year contract guarantees at least one
full-system storage refresh during the contract period. The 4-year
and 8-year contracts provide hardware and software contract
guarantees when triggered.
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SOURCE IBM