IBM New DS5000 Storage Product released:

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Most of the Netizens beleive IBM DS5000 storage product came from the acquisition of XIV storage company by IBM [check http://www.xivstorage.com/].
but i differ with this wide perception. the DS5000 which is released by IBM in sep, 2008 looks to me as an extension of IBM's old products in the mid-range (ex:DS4000 series).
yet again i like to differ myself saying it is not extension, it is whole new enterprise storage architecture and silent features are given below:
* offers improved performance.
* Scalability of FC/SATA disks upto 448.
* Boost up with 8G FC & 10G iSCSI connectivity.
* PCI-Express (PCI-e) bus architecture & so on.
* Supports RAID levels RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 10 (RAID 1+0).
* Supports up to 2048 volumes & 2048 host logins.
* Premium features FlashCopy (up to 16 copies per volume), VolumeCopy, Remote Volume Mirroring (up to 128 pairs).
* Cache memory of 8GB to 16GB cache & USB Cache backup memory for Power failures.
* IBM DS5000 series offers two models
DS5100
DS5300
Obviously for EMC & HP bloggers, DS5000 series looks no threat to their Clariion & EVA products respectively but there are specific indications
that DS5000 series future offerings will be definitely going to cut the EMC & HP business in this segment (Keep watch on this).
the beauty of this product is that it has the potential to bridge the gap between IBM's Mid-range & high range (DS8000) product offerings.

The pictures associated with this post gives you more performance & scalability offering of DS5000

EMC Storage Products lineage part1:

Hardware

Celerra - NAS family
NAS product line of EMC. the products include NAS gateways, NAS storage devices & integrated devices.
CLARiiON - SAN family
Clariion series is the SAN products for entry-midrange-entrylarge level models to tap the high selling market segment.
Prodocuts includes FC & iSCSI san architectures.
Connectrix - Switches or Fabrics family
Move your organization's vital information where it needs to go—quickly, easily, and reliably. Advanced directors and switches make it happen. Get best-in-class availability and easy management.
Centera - CAS family
Store and manage your "fixed content"—unchanging digital assets—and keep them available online and accessible. All with EMC Centera® content-addressed storage (CAS) systems. Be ready for growth with petabyte scalability.
Symmetrix - SAN infrasture family
Make high-end networked storage part of your information infrastructure with systems that take performance, availability, and security to new heights. Manage and protect your information today—and expand in the future.

Software

ControlCenter[Multi-vendor management software]
Simplify and automate key tasks—such as discovery, monitoring, reporting, planning, and provisioning—for even the largest, most complex storage environments.
Celerra Manager[NAS management Spftware]
Easily configure, administer, and monitor your EMC Celerra IP storage environment from a single web-based interface—ensuring high availability.
Navisphere Management Suite [SAN management software]
Get simple, secure, web-based management from any location. Discover, monitor, configure, and report on multiple CLARiiON arrays from your browser. Use these insights to get more value from your investment.
PowerPath
Enable EMC host-based solutions including multipathing, data migration, and host-based encryption.
Symmetrix Dynamic Cache Partitioning
Enable the consolidation of multiple workloads in a single Symmetrix while maintaining predictable performance.
Symmetrix Management Console [Symmetrix management software]
Simplify day-to-day management of your EMC Symmetrix storage with this powerful, easy-to-use browser-based management tool.
Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning
Increase storage capacity utilization, improve ease of use, and enhance performance for certain applications and workloads.

Fabric-side or Switch-side Implimentation in SAN

For More info & your Feedback, contact Email ID: storagetrendz@gmail.com.

FC SAN:
* FC Switch or Fabric in SAN architecture consists of Ports (GBIC or SFP in it), FC protocol stack, Fabric Operating system & Fabric Controller units.
* The Fabric provides basic functionality of connecting multiple Hosts & Storage Sub systems together and manages the communication between them. using Fabric switch topology, about 16 million devices can be connected together in SAN Network.
* Each port on the Swicth is having Unique Address called as World Wide Node Name (WWWN) & World Wide Port Name (WWPN).
* In addition, Fabric provides advanced functionalities as given below,
1. Multi casting & Broad casting services.
2. Name Server Database services.
3. Login Services.
4. Register state Change Notification [RCN] Services.
* Fabric Zoning is the important feature provided by FC switches, By appropriately creating zones and assigning devices [HOST + storage LUNs], an administrator can create a network in which individual hosts cannot access storage devices that are controlled by another host in the FC network.

iSCSI SAN:
* iSCSI Switch or Ethernet Swicth in SAN architecture consists of Ports (ethernet ports), TCP/IP & iSCSI protocol stack, switch software & Controller units.
* The ethernet iSCSi swith provides basic functionality of connecting multiple Hosts & Storage Sub systems together and manages the communication between them.
* Each port on the Swicth is having Unique Address called as World Wide Unique Identifier (WWUI) & there are three different address format, iqn (iscsi Qualifier Name format by CiSCO), eui (Extended Unique Identifier by IEEE), naa (Network Address Authority by T11 organization).
* In addition, Fabric provides advanced functionalities as given below,
1. Uni-Casting, Multi-casting & Any-casting services.
2. Routing Database services.
3. Login Services.
* VLAN Configuration which is similar to Fabric Zoning in FC SAN.

Note:
* More info. on FC Fabric, Zoning & iSCSI Networking will be published in upcoming Posts.

Latest Storage Industry News - Dell to buy EqualLogic for $1.4 bn

From REUTERS,
NEW YORK: Dell Inc said on Monday it would buy data storage network company EqualLogic for $1.4 billion, its largest acquisition ever, as it seeks to boost its fastest-growing business segment.
The world's second-largest computer maker said it expects the acquisition to reduce its earnings per share, excluding the amortization of intangibles, by 2 cents to 5 cents in aggregate for the fiscal years 2009 and 2010.
The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies but still must pass regulatory muster. It is expected to close late in the fourth quarter of Dell's fiscal year 2008 or early in the first quarter of its fiscal 2009.

My Opinion: This is definitely one of the biggest news in the Storage Business domain in the recent past.
'VIRTUALIZATION' is the latest buzz across the storage industries, numerous Startup companies trying to come up with their own software & some of Big names are VMWARE (acquired by EMC2), XenSource & so on. i can predict more aquisitions or mergers of Virtualization based companies in the future.
For DELL, this is the right move. DELL is trying to be competative with HP, IBM, SUN & others in the Storage business and after the IPO success of VMWARE (EMC2) certainly DELL's move to acquire EqualLogic is value addition.
The deal will give Dell a presence in iSCSI & Virtualization storage technology.