I'm always happy to see major vendors such as EMC and HP take
serious interest in the small-to-midsized business (SMB) space.
Traditionally, SMB customers (and their smaller budgets) couldn't
afford the cutting-edge technology that brought competitive
advantage to their businesses. But vendors, especially those in the
storage market, began to realize that SMBs' technical demands are
driving new investments and that SMB users are seeking the best
products that still fit their smaller budgetary requirements.
IBM, which has previously shown interest in the SMB market by
releasing versions of its storage management software and entry
level disk-storage systems (see http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/entry.html ), has brought cutting-
edge, high-performance storage to the SMB space. Last week, IBM
announced the IBM System Storage DS4700 Express, a storage solution
that features 4Gb Fibre Channel connectivity and an entry price
under $20,000.
Although the DS4700 has lots of features and capabilities (see
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/ds4000/ds4700/index.html
for the complete specifications), it's really the 4Gb Fibre Channel
capability that makes it most appealing-- for a number of reasons.
First, anyone who moves large blocks of data (from databases to rich
media) will see an immediate performance improvement, which will let
them handle a larger user load. Because it can handle almost 34TB of
physical storage capacity, the DS4700 is capable of supporting a
growing business. And with the 4Gb front-to-back performance
capability, businesses that purchase this technology get some added
protection against obsolescence, which gives the DS4700 a practical
life span longer than the storage industry's three-year standard.
Even if your business already is using Fibre Channel
technologies, the DS4700 can fit right in your infrastructure
because it's fully backward-compatible with 1Gb and 2Gb Fibre
Channel designs. Additionally, because the 4Gb model offers twice
the throughput of 2Gb systems, it will immediately improve
performance without any additional overhead. As more 4Gb devices--
such as backup appliances--become available, improved performance
will bring additional benefits to users.
Bundled with the IBM DS4000 Storage Manager software, the DS4700
brings the power of high-end, high-performance enterprise storage to
the SMB market. Unlike some SMB-oriented products that vendors
offer, which have diminished capabilities compared with the
enterprise versions, DS4700 consumers get actual enterprise
capabilities in a smaller, less-expensive package. And if a user
grows beyond the formidable capabilities of the DS4700, IBM states
that the system is fully upgradeable to the DS4800 large-scale
storage system ( http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/ds4000/ds4800/index.html ).
It seems that IBM has given much thought on how to position this
product for the SMB buyer. And the addition of the 4Gb Fibre Channel
capabilities, at an incremental increase in cost, is definitely a
good move by IBM and bodes well for the future of SMB storage
offerings.
End of Article
