IBM offers SMBs blade storage

IBM is introducing storage area networking (SAN) capabilities to its BladeCentre S product line.

The announcement is aimed squarely at small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) who want an alternative to expensive Fibre Channel SANs, using serial attached SCSI (SAS) data transfer configurations between low-end IBM blades.

Big Blue introduced its low-end blade line last summer and has now introduced the SAS RAID disk controller from its DS3200 disk array to fit the BladeCentre S chassis, which also accommodates six blades running on standard mains power.

It said the new BladeCentre S shared storage capability would allow SMBs and branch offices to consolidate multiple storage devices onto a single blade computing system, offering enterprise storage capabilities where IT resources and budget may be lacking.

With this approach, IBM also claimed to be able to cut the cost of shared storage technology by 30-40 per cent.

The mini SAN will support Windows Server 2003 and 2008, as well as Red Hat and Novell Linux. But support for IBM AIX 6.1 and i 6.1 operating systems won’t be introduced until first quarter of 2009.

Harley-Davidson Motor Company was held up as an IBM customer planning to use BladeCentre S to run multiple sites. Already a BladeCentre S user, it plans to send another fully-configured BladeCentre S with shared storage capability to its US test centre - which has no IT staff - where IBM said all they will need to do is plug it in.

Tony Locke, programme director for analyst, Freeform Dynamics told IT PRO the IBM offering would certainly be cheaper than fibre channel mid-market SANs where the use of blades in the mid-market has been growing progressively.

“Anything that can reduce the cost and pain of implementing a SAN will be attractive,” he said. “But on the flipside, blade SANs might be easier to do, but they’re certainly not plug-and-play and will need ongoing configuration maintenance, like the blades themselves.”

Other new BladeCentre S features IBM announced include the BladeCentre Start Now Advisor, which it said provides clients with guided setup so they can set up the BladeCentre S chassis in 30 minutes or less and the BladeCentre Service Advisor, designed as an automatic “call home” feature that alerts IBM or the customer’s authorised service provider to any operational issues.

IBM BladeCentre S with shared storage is expected to begin shipping in volume later this month. US pricing for the BladeCentre S starts at $2,599 (£1,469) and includes power supplies, fans, rack rails and a DVD/CD combo drive. BladeCentre Start Now Advisor and the other new features are available now.

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