IBM has introduced two new entry-level storage arrays, both
offering large capacities at a low price point, for small- to
medium-sized businesses (SMB). However, neither supports
iSCSI, which leaves IBM without a product in
this space as the rest of the industry begins aggressively
selling
IP SAN technology.
The new DS3200 direct-attached SAS
array and DS3400 4 Gbps
Fibre Channel (FC) array are based on LSI
Logic's 1333 and soon to be announced 1932 systems,
respectively. They replace IBM's DS300 (iSCSI) and DS400
entry-level arrays based on Adaptec Inc. products. The demise of
IBM's OEM deal with Adaptec, around these products, has been
rumored for months. The DS300 and DS400 will be phased out
within the next 90 days, according to Alex Yost, director of
product management for System x, at IBM.
"We have had iSCSI products, and we do have them, but there's just
no announcement today," Yost said. "Stay tuned … there's a few
months to wait." IBM resells most of Network Appliance Inc.'s
portfolio, including the N3700 (NetApp's FAS 270), which supports
NAS, FC and iSCSI, but is not an entry-level product.
The N3700 "is the low end of the N-series but it's still a
midrange solution," according to Eric Vonderhaar, customer
engineer, at Mainline Information Systems, an IBM reseller and
integrator.
Historically, IBM was the first of the major vendors to get on
board with iSCSI, shipping the 200i system in June 2001. It phased
out this product a year later having sold next to no units. The
200i was an IBM server with extra storage and an iSCSI front-end as
opposed to a purpose-built iSCSI array. Big Blue's next strategy,
in July 2003, was to resell the IP Services Module for the Cisco
Systems Inc. MDS 9000 series of FC switches. The eight-port module
allowed up to 10 servers per iSCSI-enabled port to access
FC-attached storage. This was followed up in September 2004 with
the Adaptec deal for the DS300.
Analysts note that IBM's trial and error history with iSCSI is
typical of most of the industry. However, the majority of vendors
now have their stories straight and are aggressively shipping iSCSI
systems. Hewlett Packard Co. (HP) introduced the All-in-One (AiO)
iSCSI and
NAS box in September 2006, Network Appliance
launched StoreVault in June 2006, and EMC and Dell rolled out
the AX150 in April 2006. Dell has since teamed up with Microsoft
on the NX1950, which is a Dell PowerVault server running
Microsoft's Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003. Of the
system startups in the iSCSI market, EqualLogic Inc. and
LeftHand Networks Inc. have gained considerable traction in the
past 18 months.
"The market is IBM's to lose at this point," said one analyst
who preferred to remain anonymous. He noted that IBM is in a
difficult position politically with so many partners. "Should they
resell the NetApp StoreVault or something from LSI or bundle the
Microsoft Storage Server?"
The answer is none of the above for now, but if you're looking
for low-end FC or DAS, IBM has plenty to offer. The company's
biggest claim with the new DS3000 series is its Storage Manager
software, which it says allows users to set up and manage its
storage in six easy steps. According to Vonderhaar at Mainline
Information Systems, the product is much easier than traditional FC
systems, but it's not quite six clicks. "It's six clicks if you are
doing a basic setup, but if you have failover RAID arrays, hot
spares or partitioning, it's more clicks than that," he said. A
configuration wizard drives users through the process.
Both the DS3200 and DS3400 offer an entry-level single
controller model and a dual-controller model if required. The
DS3200 system is direct-attached storage for IBM System x servers
that provides support for clustering and a 3 Gbps SAS connection to
the host. The DS3400, which can be direct attached or used in a SAN
configuration, supports 4 Gbps FC and works with IBM System x and
BladeCenter servers, in addition to select third-party servers.
Both systems support 12 SAS hard disk drives for 3.6 TB and up
to three EXP3000 expansion enclosures for a total of 14.4
terabytes. The DS3000 Series is available January 30, 2007 with the
DS3200 starting at a list price of $4,495 and the DS3400 at a list
price of $6,495.