STORAGE

FREMONT, CA -- IBM today announced new technology that can boost performance of entry-level to midrange servers and storage systems by providing faster, more reliable access to data. Available now, the ProFibre Storage Array DF4000R brings enterprise-level RAID features to IBM's line of high-density, two gigabit (2Gb) per second storage subsystems designed for resellers and OEMs. Targeted for environments that require fast data transfer and high data availability, such as storage area networks (SAN), network attached storage (NAS) and clustered server database platforms, the ProFibre DF4000R delivers enterprise performance and scalability, with 100,000 I/Os per second (IOPS) speed and up to 8.8 terabytes (TB) of stored information. Typical usage may include online transaction processing, web query retrieval, video editing, network caching and storage and telecommunications applications. "IBM's ProFibre DF4000R storage system is no mere commodity," said Dan Tanner, senior analyst for Storage and Storage Management at Aberdeen Group. "Rather, the DF4000R storage system can be compared to a 'carrier-class' storage subsystem in robustness and scalability as well as--thanks to adopting the latest 2Gb Fibre Channel standard--in performance." "For the first time, advanced capabilities and performance found in systems serving enterprise markets are now available for Windows NT and Linux applications," said David Walling, vice president of marketing for IBM OEM RAID and storage systems. "With 100,000 I/O's per second, 350MB sustained bandwidth and a complete set of integration and remote management tools, the ProFibre DF4000R offers OEMs and resellers the ability to choose the level of integration and value-add that best suits their needs, from individual components to a complete solution." The ProFibre DF4000R combines superior reliability in an easy-to-manage integrated solution that includes dual-active 2Gb Mylex(R) SANArray(TM) FFx-2 RAID controllers, advanced enclosure design, pre-qualified disk drives, and redundant, hot-pluggable components that can all but eliminate downtime due to individual part failures. Software for RAID management, path redundancy, flash update utilities for the controller, enclosure and drives as well as command line interface tools for customization provide a robust storage management solution. "Discreet chose IBM for our Windows NT-based edit non-linear editing (NLE) system for its advanced technology and component integration capabilities," said Doug Hynes, Discreet infrastructure product manager. "Together, Discreet's edit NLE and IBM's 2Gb ProFibre DF4000R RAID storage solution will deliver the speed, scalability and performance our customers demand." Product Features, User Benefits The ProFibre DF4000R incorporates a number of features bearing tangible user benefits in the areas of performance, data availability, scalability, reliability, and manageability: *Performance: Integrated dual-active 2Gb RAID controllers can deliver up to 350MB/second sustained data transfer and 100,000 cached IOPS, compared to 190MB/sec and 15,000 IOPS typical of 1Gb RAID controller pairs in this market. Up to 1GB of data cache can be configured for mirroring, providing enhanced performance and data availability. *High Data Availability: Fully redundant, hot swappable RAID controllers, disk drives, host attachments, power supplies and fan assemblies are designed to eliminate any single point of failure. Dual loops offer independent paths to all drives, with failover/failback and optional path protection for improved fault tolerance. Host clustering support helps maximize data protection. The ProFibre DF4000R supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and 50. Enclosure monitoring is routed through all drive locations, providing a high level of redundancy and configuration flexibility. *Scalability: The standard 3U-high 19-inch rackmount enclosure offers 15 bays for 1-inch, 10,000 or 15,000 RPM disk drives, and can scale to 1.1TB per enclosure. Up to 120 disk drives or 8.8TB per storage system are available for rapidly expanding network storage needs. *Reliability: Designed to maximize system-level performance while reducing service calls and minimizing downtime, sophisticated dampening material helps eliminate excessive vibration that can cause hard disks to miss reads or suffer performance degradation. Vibration tests show 12%-140% better write response time compared to other enclosures tested. This is a particularly important issue in today's high-density subsystems with 15,000-RPM disk drives. Adaptive cooling and automatic environmental monitoring further improve reliability. *Manageability: Remote management software allows system administrators to configure, manage and monitor IBM RAID storage from anywhere in the world across an IP network. Additional features include event logging, error notification, host-to-LUN masking and online capacity expansion. The advanced installation wizard simplifies disk array setup by enabling interactive selection of the optimum balance of storage capacity, fault tolerance and I/O performance. Industry Support and Compatibility IBM is working closely with leading 2Gb host bus adapter vendors Emulex and QLogic and network switch vendors Brocade, Gadzoox Networks, QLogic and Vixel to offer seamless support and interoperability with the ProFibre DF4000R. For more information visit www.ibm.com