STORAGE

ARMONK, NY -- IBM today introduced a powerful, next-generation enterprise storage server that leads the industry in database and transaction processing performance while delivering self-managing and self-healing technology features from IBM's Project eLiza. Powered by IBM's copper microchips and industry-first 2-Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Fibre/FICON data transfer rates, the new IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server (ESS, code named "Shark") Model 800 and 800 Turbo option deliver superior system throughput and performance over comparably equipped competitive systems. The new model also enables "on the fly" configuration and management capabilities designed to help lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The new model is designed to provide ESS customers with: Industry-leading data transaction processing performance. Real time transaction processing is crucial to financial institutions, retailers, manufacturers and any business with heavy on-line transaction demands. "Smart" software technology introduced as part of IBM's Project eLiza initiative to create intelligent IT systems capable of managing, protecting and healing themselves automatically. Industry leading database performance for applications like data warehousing and Business Intelligence A 50 percent increase in already superior data back-up capability over the previous model. Significantly improved remote copy performance for disaster recovery and unplanned business disruption -- now up to 125 percent faster than the previous model. "With IBM's new Shark, we have significantly increased performance and tripled our storage capacity, while reducing our cost to manage information," said Joe Giacometti, senior vice president of Information Technology at Ahold, which operates some of the largest retail grocery store chains in the world. "We selected Shark because of its superior technology to that of EMC and HDS. This technology has allowed us to better manage our information and provides us the flexibility to address our changing business needs. We've been able to reduce the time to market for new applications because of Shark." Designed to be the most versatile and cost-efficient storage server in its class, the Model 800 offers many new flexible features, including a "turbo" configuration that efficiently handles up to 150 percent more workload, an expanded 64 gigabyte (Gb) internal cache, increased internal bandwidth, Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) level-10 data mirroring and striping for performance in high demanding applications. "Our new ESS sets a new standard for performance that builds on IBM's commitment to delivering storage products loaded with technology innovation and leading with open industry standards," said Linda Sanford, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Storage Systems Group. "The fact that our customers have placed over 10,000 Enterprise Storage Servers at the heart of their e-business infrastructures confirms that we made the right choices when the product was first introduced less than three years ago. ESS will remain the centerpiece of our storage family and we will continue to improve and enhance its performance." Self-managing ESS The Model 800 features technologies introduced as part of IBM's Project eLiza that are designed to enable the system to help increase storage administrator productivity, improve data availability and reduce TCO. These autonomic technologies include predictive failure analysis and preemptive RAID reconstructs, which are designed to monitor the "health" of the system and to detect potential problems or system errors before they occur. ESS also provides intelligent cache management and I/O prioritization, helping to optimize its performance based on varying service level demands. Speeding SANs With its advanced 2 Gbps host adapters (supporting FCP and FICON, long wave or shortwave), the Model 800 can be the backbone for high-performing SANs, helping customers to build storage networks that enhance the performance, extend the distance, improve the sharing and reduce the costs of their computing infrastructure. The higher performance adapters are also compatible with existing 1 Gbps SAN solutions. More Efficient, Reliable and Consolidated Storage The technology upgrades throughout the Model 800 can also help improve the efficiency, continuity and consolidation of customers' critical business processes. Throughput performance leadership for IBM's Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) and new PPRC Extended Distance (PPRC-XD) data backup software for mainframe and open systems servers is now increased by up to 125 percent compared to the previous model. PPRC-XD creates a copy of customers' production data at a remote site, helping to make that information available in the event of an unplanned business disruption. IBM Global Services offers installation and implementation services for PPRC-XD, as part of its Business Continuity portfolio. FlashCopy, which can eliminate the need to stop applications for extended periods of time in order to perform backups, benefits from both initialization and secondary volume creation performance enhancements. FlashCopy establish times are reduced as much as 50 percent over the previous model, reducing 'backup windows' to seconds and background copy rates are almost 30 percent faster. The Model 800 is available with a variety of disk drive options. In addition to standard 72.8 Gb drives, IBM offers 15,000 RPM disk drives in both 18.2 and 36.4 Gb capacities, supporting higher data throughput and performance. The higher-speed drives can increase random read and random write data throughput workloads at significantly higher access densities and achieve improved service time advantages. This can also reduce TCO. IBM TotalStorage Delivers Integrated Solutions The ability to deliver technology in an integrated, end-to-end solutions package, as the Model 800 demonstrates, gives customers competitive advantage. This integration helps deliver a flexible storage infrastructure for applications and industry-specific solutions. For example, the performance and capacity of ESS enhances the value of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions by doubling the scale for application growth. The Model 800 will be generally available on August 16, 2002. ESS is IBM's high-performance disk storage solution designed to work with a variety of hardware and software technologies, such as Windows NT, UNIX, Novell NetWare, the entire IBM eServer family, and with a variety of interfaces, including Fibre Channel (FCP and FICON), Ultra SCSI and ESCON. More information is available at www.ibm.com/totalstorage/ess.