IBM adds entry-level Storwize V3700 array

IDG News Service - IBM on Tuesday announced the Storwize V3700 storage array, which starts at $11,000 and is one of the lowest-priced storage products the company offers.

The V3700 array comprises a stack of technologies including virtualization and thin provisioning features that together effectively manage storage on a mix of disk drives and solid-state drives, the company said. A simple user interface is designed to make the array easy to manage and the hardware offers tools and drivers to support OpenStack, an OS that links server, storage and networking technologies to improve data center performance.

The array is for cloud or "big data" applications, and will be effective in handling structured and unstructured data, said Ed Walsh, vice president of marketing and strategy at IBM. The array includes some features and management capabilities from the high-end Storwize V7000 arrays.

The array is targeted at small and medium-size businesses, Walsh said. A simple configuration of the array will start at $11,000, and can be ordered now. The product will be released at the end of the month.

The array comes in a 2U rackmount enclosure and can scale to 180TB in storage capacity. The disk system has dual controllers, with each controller supporting up to 8GB of cache. The standard host controller is 1Gbps (gigabits per second) iSCSI, with optional 8Gb Fibre Channel or 10Gbps iSCSI/Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) host controllers.

The array is optimized for flash storage and has automatic thin provisioning and volume management, IBM said. Real-time compression capabilities could increase the amount of usable capacity by two to five times, Walsh said. Through features like automation in Storwize V3700, IBM's goal is to help customers effectively manage storage resources to deal with the growing influx of data.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com