IBM Goes SMB Storage Hunting
IBM Goes SMB Storage Hunting
January 17, 2006: IBM shifts enterprise storage solutions down the market to extend out to SMBs
The market shift comes through the announcement of the DS3000 range, targeted to reach smaller enterprises and larger customers who might operative over distributed locations.
IBM says the cheapened solutions will give customers an affordable means to handle their storage needs. A standard feature of the DS3000 is the Sotrage Manager software that assists in the simplicity of storage operations by allowing customers to set up and manage their data resources in six steps, something that IBM says, makes it a realistic option for SMBs.
“Small and medium businesses are face with managing a rising tide of feature-rich-e-mail and greater file-print requirements, while large enterprises are implementing new applications, including video security and digital imaging,” says Jim Gargan, vice president and business line executive at IBM. “These customers need an entry storage product that can grow to meet their needs.”
The DS3000 Series includes two products offering both an entry-level single controller model and dual controller model to help maintain data-availability. The first product, the IBM System Storage DS3200, is a direct-attached storage solution offering support for clustering. The second, the IBM System Storage DS3400, can be direct attached of used in a SAN configuration and is designed to accommodate 4 Gbps Fibre Channel connectivity.
IBM says the combination of these two products in the DS3000 Series will offer customers a simple solution for organisations to address their database, email and web serving management needs.