IBM System Storage SAN06B-R

Highlights

• Designed for high performance with up to sixteen 8 Gbps Fibre Channel ports and six 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports for faster data replication, backup and recovery
• Utilizes existing IP-based Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructures for cost-effective replication, backup and recovery
• “Pay-as-you-grow” scalability
• Integration with IBM System Storage Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) simplifies configuration.

The IBM® System Storage® SAN06B-R extension switch accelerates and optimizes replication, backup and data migration over any distance using next generation Fibre Channel (FC) and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) networking technologies. It combines industry-leading performance and reliability, “pay-as-you-grow” scalability, and flexible deployment options to address the most demanding disaster recovery, compliance and data mobility requirements.

A wide range of System Storage midrange and enterprise Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure simplification and business continuity solutions can be created with the System Storage SAN06B-R extension switch. Infrastructure simplification solutions for the IBM Power Systems™ and IBM System x® families include disaster tolerance over metropolitan and global IP networks with System Storage disk arrays, tape libraries and IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager data protection software. Separate SAN islands can also be consolidated using FC routing. Support for IBM System z® servers is provided via the optional 8 Gbps Advanced Extension, IBM FICON® Accelerator and FICON CUP Activation features.

Local site infrastructure simplification solutions may be extended to one or more remote sites for enhanced data protection and disaster tolerance. The System Storage SAN06B-R extension switch provides FCIP and FCIP Tunneling Services for distance extension, which can enable cost-effective and manageable metro and global business continuity solutions. This extended distance connectivity can help create consolidated remote tape vaulting data protection plus metro mirror and global mirror disk-based, disaster-tolerant solutions.

Since the introduction of SANs, customers have built multiple SAN networks (or islands) for different applications, often with fabric switch components from different manufacturers. Some islands were built by different departments within a company, while other islands resulted from mergers, acquisitions or reorganizations. Dissimilar SAN equipment with different capabilities, or a desire to isolate important applications, has constrained opportunities for enhanced infrastructure simplification and vital business continuity solutions.

The optional System Storage SAN06B-R extension switch Integrated Routing feature can provide Fibre Channel Routing Service, which allows the interconnection of multiple SAN islands without requiring that the separate fabrics be merged into a single large fabric. This capability can help create a tiered or extended enterprise SAN infrastructure without having to redesign or reconfigure the entire environment. The Server Application Optimization (SAO) license is now available as an optional feature.