Barry Whyte and Andrew Martin : IBM Storage

Previous Posts

  • NVMe-FC Proof of Technology Demo

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 4th September 2018 5,688 views on developerworks There is a lot of talk – dare I say Hype – around NVMe, and I’ve found that a lot of people don’t understand what it means, not only in terms of the technology, but also why is it important from a business, getting things done, perspective. We recently ran a Meet-up in Auckland for local storage professionals, partners and IBMers to explain more about NVMe, just what it is, how it is being used and why it matters. ‘SCSI – So Long and Thanks for All the Fish I/O’ A… [Read More]

    NVMe-FC Proof of Technology Demo

  • NVMe-FC in action, TechU Sydney wrap and FS9100 AP Launch – what a week!

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 15th August 2018 IBM Technical University – Sydney Wrapup This time last week, IBM’s Sydney Technical University was in full flow. I wanted to provide a quick summary of last week, including our ‘stand room only’ AP FlashSystem 9100 launch event and thank everyone involved, from the organising committee, through our local and international speakers, and of course out clients and partners for all making the events such a success. It’s actually partly due to the AP TechU events that I now live in New Zealand, after attending the 2014 events and ‘finding a new job’ via the… [Read More]

    NVMe-FC in action, TechU Sydney wrap and FS9100 AP Launch – what a week!

  • Spectrum Virtualize, FlashSystem and SCMs

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 13th July 2018 7,785 views on developerworks Its been great to see all the interest over the last week on the new FlashSystem 9100 products announced on July 10th. Interesting too on the register with the battlecard information, and some of the usual ‘anonymous’ comments that seem to miss the point – particularly that we have 3 flash families. In reality its just 2, with V and A families, where V9000 is surpassed in many ways by the new FS9100, but we’ve chosen to drop the V from the name. Anyway, haters will hate, lovers will love, but one thing… [Read More]

    Spectrum Virtualize, FlashSystem and SCMs

  • Introducing the IBM FlashSystem 9100 – with NVMe Flash-Core-Modules (FCM)

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 10th July 2018 21,866 views on developerworks Today we have announced the next generation FlashSystem product built with Spectrum Virtualize capabilities at its heart. What’s new and exciting about this, well it brings together the best of IBM FlashSystems, Spectrum Virtualize and adds the new dual ported (very important) NVMe Flash drives, both OEM manufacturers and IBM’s patents FlashSystem Micro Latency Modules, with the debut of new FCM’s – Flash Core Modules in an NVMe form factor and interface, complete with the same in-built no performance impact compression hardware as the current FlashSystem 900 solution. The storage development team… [Read More]

  • Thanks for the support! 10,000,000 views

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 4th July 2018 Hi all, just a quick post to say thanks for visiting, and for all the visits over the last 10 years or so! I hope the content here is helpful both in deciding on your Storage purchases, as well as making the most out of IBM Spectrum Virtualize. Yesterday we just pass the magic, 10,000,000 views mark – thank you! [Read More]

    Thanks for the support! 10,000,000 views

  • Introducing Spectrum Virtualize 8.1.3 – Enhancing DRP, Dedupe and more

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 10th May 2018 9,873 views on developerworks Hopefully you manage(d) to join the Reducing Storage Costs webinar, but if not, here is a brief look at what we announced today – May 10th. Spectrum Virtualize v8.1.3 Data Reduction Pools – Deduplication I spent some time in my v8.1.2 post discussing how Data Reduction Pools were a re-imagining of the storage pool concept. Mainly because we went back to the drawing board and asked ourselves what is it that a storage pool needs to provide in today’s all flash, and future storage class memory world. Not only from a… [Read More]

  • Pure dead brilliant – not quite the first I’m afraid!

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 27th February 2018 ‘Pure dead brilliant, so it is’ – Urban Dictionary This week, while recovering from the crazy busy week over in Vegas for IBM Think, I was sent an email by our competitive analysis team which reminded me of why I started this blog back in 2007. In those days, there were only a few of us, Tony Pearson (IBM), Barry Burke (EMC), Hu Yoshida (HDS), Chuck Hollis (EMC) and of course, Steering Wheel Cam of America, 3Par Marc Farley. (Last I knew, with HDS). We’d all bicker and banter between us, particularly when someone made a big blunder, or missed the point, notice Chuck and BarryB… [Read More]

    Pure dead brilliant – not quite the first I’m afraid!

  • Introducing Spectrum Virtualize 8.1.2 including Data Reduction Pools

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 20th February 2018 It’s that Tuesday in 1Q where IBM announces a load of new products (SpectrumNAS) and enhancements to the existing products. There is so much being announced today, that I will refer you to Tony’s post that covers them all, and I will concentrate on Spectrum Virtualize as usual – for what doesn’t look like much in the marketing material, but in reality is a HUGE change to some fundamentals of how Spectrum Virtualize operates. Since the first introduction of Spectrum Virtualize, when it was just known as SVC back in 2003, we haven’t really changed the… [Read More]

    Introducing Spectrum Virtualize 8.1.2 including Data Reduction Pools

  • Introducing Spectrum Virtualize 8.1.0

    ORIGINALLY POSTED 24th August 2017 10,961 views on developerworks On Tuesday 22nd August we announced the latest code update that will be available soon for the Spectrum Virtualize family.For the first time since 2012 we have bumped the major version number to 8. This signifies some exciting new features that begin with this release in 3Q and will be expanded greatly in the 4Q release later this year. But for now, what’s new in v8.1.0 Automatic Hot Spare NodesLast year we expanded on the scripted ‘warm standby’ node procedure by allowing you to configure spare nodes to a cluster. This… [Read More]

    Introducing Spectrum Virtualize 8.1.0