SOMERS, NY, November 10, 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) IBM today announced enhancements to its XIV Storage System to help clients manage their Information Infrastructure needs, including asynchronous mirroring and instant space reclamation, expanding the capabilities of IBM’s industry leading storage platform.
IBM is now providing high-performance snapshot-based asynchronous mirroring as part of its XIV Storage System that allows flexible, easy mirroring between sites at virtually unlimited distances. This complements the synchronous mirroring that was already available. As is the case with all XIV enhancements, there is no additional charge for this function, and there are no additional hardware requirements, such as a cache upgrades. The functionality is built into the IBM XIV Storage System Software.
Mirroring can be scheduled at flexible intervals between 20 seconds and 12 hours, and clients' recovery point objectives (RPO) can be different, and independent of their mirroring schedule. IBM XIV mirroring can be automatic -- based on a predetermined, user-configurable schedule -- or via a manual command. It supports a large number of mirrors, and a client can mirror either volumes or they can choose to mirror consistency groups so that an application or other set of data can be kept in synch together. It is also bidirectional so hosting systems can mirror and be mirrored simultaneously and support both synchronous and asynchronous mirroring on each system.
XIV supports instant space reclamation
IBM today also announced the addition of an XIV instant space reclamation function that enables XIV users to optimize capacity utilization by allowing supporting applications, such as Symantec’s Veritas Storage Foundation product, to instantly regain unused file system space in thin-provisioned XIV volumes. This is an enhancement of IBM XIV’s existing Thin Provisioning capability
Previously, IBM XIV Thin Provisioning provided space reclamation on a non-instant basis, detecting, zeroing out, and releasing unused storage to the general storage pool on a steady, but slower basis. The new instant capability enables third party products to interlock with the XIV system, detecting unused space instantly and automatically, and immediately reassigning it to the general storage pool for reuse.
Today's announcement continues a series of enhancements IBM has added to XIV this year. In July, the company announced faster performance through the introduction of dual processors, offering performance improvements of up to 30 percent. This will help customers reduce costs by ensuring the efficiency of employees who rely on quick access to information. Other XIV enhancements include new functionality to support Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), enabling single sign-on and consolidated access control for multiple systems, as well as IBM Tivoli Productivity Center 4.1 support designed to simplify cross-systems management.
Today’s XIV enhancements will be shipped with new systems beginning November 19, and will also be available to existing XIV customers at no additional cost.
For additional information about IBM and Storage, please visit www.ibm.com/storage.
