IBM has announced today that several new storage products, one of
which comes with iSCSI connectivity, targeting the low-end market.
The new iSCSI product will ship on Sept. 7, about nine months after
IBM ended its previous OEM relationship with iSCSI SAN supplier
Adaptec Inc., creating a gap in its portfolio that lasted until
this announcement.
The new iSCSI product is called the DS3300 and is based on the
LSI 1532 array, which is similar to the 1333, at the core of IBM's
existing DS3200 serial attached SCSI (SAS) direct-attached storage
(DAS) offering. The new DS3300, however, functions as networked
storage and has both iSCSI and SAS connections.
A single controller for the DS3300 costs $5,000, but does not come
with disk. IBM says it will slash pricing for SAS disks to add to
the system, according to Harold Pike, entry and midrange disk
product marketing manager for IBM. A terabyte (TB) of capacity will
cost around $2,500 for four 300 GB SAS disks, said Pike. The DS3300
is meant to compete in a "price band" against products like HP's
MSA arrays, EMC's AX150 and offerings from EqualLogic Corp. and
LeftHand Networks Inc., according to Pike.
Unlike some of its low-end iSCSI competitors, the DS3300 also
does not bundle in software, other than LSI's Simplicity management
console. IBM's FlashCopy and VolumeCopy snapshot software can be
added on with separate licenses. All told, according to Pike, a
typical configuration will come to about $15,000.
The box also differs from low-end offerings like HP's All-in-One
or Dell's NX1950 in that it does not offer NAS or multiprotocol
access. IBM has a product called the System x 3650 T, which, like
the AiO and NX1950, is based on Windows storage software for NAS
support, and is typically bundled with System x servers. IBM also
resells almost all of Network Appliance Inc.'s product line for
NAS, but does not offer any NetApp product in the low-end
market.
"I contend that none of those low-end boxes have the bandwidth
to support both protocols at the same time," Pike said. "I can't
say anything about low-end NAS at this point," he added
Third time the charm?
This is IBM's third crack at an iSCSI product; six years ago it
marketed the TotalStorage 200i Controller, but quickly found the
market was not ready. In September 2004, IBM rolled out the DS300
and DS400 products, based on Adaptec hardware. In January, IBM
announced a new deal for low-end storage with LSI Corp. that
included SAS and Fibre Channel arrays, but not iSCSI. At that time,
IBM confirmed that the LSI agreement bumped Adaptec and that the
DS300 and DS400 had been discontinued, though it still supports the
products for existing users. Pike said the decision to go with LSI
stemmed in part from the fact that its DS3000 and DS4000 storage
products, all manufactured by LSI, can now share code and
management interfaces.
"Is IBM late? I would say no," said Greg Schulz, founder and
analyst with the StorageIO Group. "They've had the iSCSI capability
all along, with what you could call false starts -- or you could
say that the market wasn't really ready."
Despite all the hype over the last several years, in fact, many
industry experts now agree that it's only been this year that iSCSI
has started to show any real market penetration. "Competitors who
are worried about IBM will say they're late to market," Schulz
said. "But I would say they're [now] right on time."
At least one IBM value-added reseller (VAR) says there is "some
pent-up demand" for the product among his customer base.
"Especially at the low end of the market, users are slower to adapt
to new technologies," according to Sean Hobday, executive VP of
sales for Zones Inc., which focuses on the SMB and midmarket.
Hobday said the product will probably see the most sales based on
attachment to IBM servers. He added that NAS capabilities "are
going to be important going forward" at this level of the
market.
Other low-end product announcements
IBM is also announcing two new Express bundles (one single and
one dual-controller) for its DS3400 product, which now includes
cabling, a switch from Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and an
HBA from Emulex Corp.; previously the pieces had to be bought
separately. The new bundles will also include Emulex's EzPilot
software, a wizard that installs and deploys HBAs, switches and
storage arrays. Emulex's software and HBAs, as well as Brocade
switches, also comprise a similar bundle from HP called the EVA4100
SAN Starter Kit. IBM's single controller kit starts at around
$9,900; the dual controller bundle is priced at around $13,800.
There will also be Express bundles for the DS3300, also in single-
and dual-controller configurations, which will include a QLogic
iSCSI HBA. The single-controller DS3300 Express is priced at
$4,545, and the dual-controller model at $7,045.