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Key Completes iSeries Interoperability Testing With IBM

Key Information Systems, a systems integration company and Premier IBM Business Partner that specializes in e-business and high-availability solutions, has announced that it has successfully completed interoperability testing between the iSeries and IBM's newly redesigned Enterprise Storage Server Model 800 (code named SilverTip, successor to Shark). The tests included high speed Fibre-Channel links between the iSeries Model 820 running under OS/400 V5R2 and the ESS Model 800 in a SAN environment.

"Our testing has confirmed that the iSeries now can take full advantage of a Fibre-Channel switched network," said Pete Elliot, Key's Director of Marketing. "The bottom line is iSeries users today can consolidate high-speed storage in an open systems environment and thereby achieve substantial savings in disk space -- and therefore cost -- across the enterprise."

"The release of V5R2, scheduled for late August, will mean that the iSeries can now play in an open systems SAN environment without users having to buy separate infrastructure to support it," Elliot said.

Engineers from Key recently spent time at IBM's Rochester, Minnesota, lab testing the Fibre-Channel link between an iSeries Model 830 and the new Enterprise Storage Server 800. They achieved an aggregate bandwidth (transmit and receive) of 400 megabytes per second. The Key team clocked a maximum throughput of a scorching 700 megabytes per second using Fibre-Channel. A comparable SCSI connection generally has a maximum throughput at only 40 megabytes per second.

Testing continued at Key's Total Storage Solution Center in Woodland Hills, California, where Key attached the new Enterprise Storage Server Model 800 to an iSeries Model 820. Key, a preferred IBM beta test site, is one of only three Total Storage Solution Centers in the U.S. to have received a prerelease ESS Model 800 and the only one in the country to connect it to an iSeries.

"Our tests indicated the Fibre-Channel connection is at least 50 times faster than SCSI," Elliot said. "This allows the Enterprise Storage Server to be used as primary disk storage for the iSeries. For those companies that have numerous iSeries computers, it will allow them to significantly leverage their investment in disk."

"Our tests indicate that the Shark is equivalent, and in some instances superior to, internal DASD as far as speed," Elliot said. "Read and write speeds differ, but essentially it's as fast or faster than internal disk," he said.

The Enterprise Storage Server Model 800 also features Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) that allows users to seamlessly link data centers across short and long distances. When IBM releases PPRC for general availability in October, it will be useful in data replication, data migration, data protection, and disaster recovery. Another feature of the new Enterprise Storage Server Model 800 is Flash Copy, which allows iSeries users to make fast offline backups.

Scott Pond, Key's Director of Professional Services, who has overseen the company's testing of the iSeries with the Enterprise Storage Server 800, says he anticipates broad acceptance among iSeries users of IBM's newly redesigned storage device. "We think the ESS Model 800 with the Fibre-Channel configuration is going to be extremely popular among iSeries users. With the release of V5R2, the iSeries definitely will be a player in the open systems SAN environment."

Elliot noted that iSeries users should find the IBM Enterprise Storage Server far preferable to other large storage servers on the market simply because iSeries owners will now have a single point of contact for support. "As we all know, having a single point of contact can be worth its weight in gold in the unlikely event that a problem should arise in the SAN network," Elliot said.

About Key Information Systems Inc

Key Information Systems Inc, www.keyisit.com, a Premier Business Partner with IBM, is a systems integration company located at 22120 Clarendon St, Suite 100, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, USA. Founded in 1995, the company provides corporate infrastructure architecture and e-business solutions. Key Information Systems has distinguished itself by extending its high availability infrastructure solutions to the Internet economy. The company delivers a complete range of offerings that include professional services, education, maintenance, and IBM Global Financing. Key delivers affordable and scalable solutions for today's fast-paced business environment by integrating business strategies with infrastructure engineering. For more information, please visit the company online or call 818-992-8950.

Contact: Pete Elliot, Director of Marketing, Key Information Systems, 818-737-2804.