Features - Storage Innovations:

FIRST NAS TO ACCELERATE ON-DEMAND NETWORKED STORAGE

IBM has announced the storage industry's first technology that accelerates network performance and scalability available in new and powerful, network attached storage models targeted for mid-sized customers. In addition, IBM is also integrating higher capacity disk drives with its mid-range disk storage to improve scalability.

Midrange storage products are seeing dramatic growth rates due to the increase in storage networking by both mid-sized customers and enterprise customers that are demanding high performing products that are lower in cost and easier to manage and install.

"IBM's strategy is to deliver the latest technology advances to our customers as quickly as possible so that they can take advantage of these improvements" said David Vaughn, product manager of networked storage, IBM Storage Systems Group. "This strategy helps us deliver the high performance products our customers need as they evolve to on-demand businesses."

Highlights of this announcement include:

• TotalStorage Network Attached Storage (NAS) 200 doubles processing power and 50 percent faster Windows performance using new, faster 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processors, first to integrate accelerator adapters to speed storage network traffic, and first with 146.8GB disk drives that double the scalability to 7 terabytes.
• TotalStorage NAS Gateway 300 doubles processing power and 50 percent faster Windows performance using new, faster 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processors, first to integrate accelerator adapters to speed storage network traffic, increased scalability to 22 terabytes, and double the throughput capabilities to storage area networks using 2Gb fibre channel attachment.
• TotalStorage FAStT double the capacity using new 146.8 GB disk drives boosting capacity to up to 32 terabytes.
• IBM Tivoli Software IBM Total Storage Solution Centers worldwide will be enabled with the recently announced Tivoli Storage Resource Manager by the end of fourth quarter 2002. This web-based storage resource management solution with exceptional capabilities for the mid-market is easy to install and configure, reducing deployment and administration costs.

Industry First NAS to Accelerate Network Performance

IBM's new NAS 200 and NAS Gateway 300 models increase Windows (CIFS) performance by 50 percent, offering one the industry's fastest Windows performance rates. In addition, Unix application performance (NFS) has also increased by 30 percent for both models. These results were achieved by using new, faster 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processors and the first NAS product to integrate TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) technology using accelerator adapters.

Accelerator adapters are designed to deliver high speed network performance by moving TCP/IP processing from the NAS processor to a custom processor specifically designed to mange this function in hardware. The TCP/IP processing overhead on NAS processors can consume up to 90 percent of the processing cycles. Offloading this processing with accelerator adaptors frees the NAS to make available more processor cycles and thereby increasing overall performance throughput.

The NAS 200 also includes new 146.8 disk drives to boost capacity by more than double to 7 terabytes.

Additional connectivity improvements include the support for 2Gb Fibre Channel attachment for the Gateway 300, providing double the throughput capability for SANs and redundant paths to storage area networks.

Finally, IBM also will expand the availability of its recently introduced NAS 100 to allow any IBM business partner currently eligible to remarket products from IBM's Personal Computers Division to remarket the IBM TotalStorage NAS 100 to its customers.

"IBM's new TotalStorage NAS and FAStT models will help provide customers with higher performance storage networks while still maintaining their ease of use and lower cost," said Steve Licata, practice manager of storage solutions, Saturn Business Systems. "One of the greatest benefits when working with IBM is our enhanced ability to address our customer's business problems by being able to offer a complete set of storage solutions, from NAS to SAN to storage software with IBM's Tivoli." Both the NAS 200 Model and Gateway 300 Model will be available on November 22, 2002. Base list pricing for the NAS 200 Model begins at $17,295 (220 GB, U.S.). Base list pricing for the NAS Gateway 300 begins at $63,100 (U.S.).

Mid-Range Disk Scales to Over 32 Terabytes

IBM has also more than doubled the capacity of its family of FAStT midrange storage products by offering higher capacity disk drives. With the new drives, the FAStT 200 designed for workgroups and departments now scales to 9 terabytes while the FAStT 500 and 700 models designed for business-critical applications in mid-sized environments now scale to 32.8 terabytes.

The new disk drives can offer customers a price advantage. For example, a base list price of a similar configuration FAStT server with 6.2 TB could save a customer $8,550 using forty-two 146.8GB drives versus eighty-four 73.4 GB drives.

Emageon, a leading provider of enterprise solutions for diagnostic imaging, has worked with IBM to develop storage networking solutions based on IBM's line of FAStT storage servers for life sciences customers. "IBM's FAStT storage servers offer an ideal solution for research institutions and hospitals who need highly scalable storage solutions at an affordable price," said Keith Stahlhut, vice president, Strategic Relationships for Emageon. "With the volume of life sciences data doubling every six months, the new higher capacity FAStT models will help customers keep on top of their intense data demands."

The enhanced FAStT storage servers will be available November 22, 2002.