

IBM Storwize V7000 storage array platform

IBM's Storwize V7000 SAN array platform supports hard disk drives and flash drives, and is marketed to high-capacity enterprises.

The IBM Storwize V7000 is for large and highly virtualized data centers. The IBM SAN array comes with a range of features, such as FlashCopy, and supports a number of IBM storage management applications. Block- and file-level storage are supported, as well as hard disk drives and 2.5-inch flash drives. Flash-based storage does not use mechanical drives, reducing latency and increasing read/write speeds at a higher cost.

The V7000 supports a maximum of 504 drives per control enclosure, or 1,056 per clustered system, for a maximum capacity of approximately 6 petabytes (PB). The array supports SAS and near-line SAS (NL-SAS) interconnects, and can fit 3.5-inch NL-SAS disk drives in capacities of 2 TB, 3 TB, 4 TB and 6 TB, with rotational speeds of 7,200 rpm. It can also fit 15,000 rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives in capacities of 300 GB and 600 GB, and 10,000 rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives in capacities of 600 GB, 900 GB and 1.8 TB. The Storwize array supports 2.5-inch flash drives in capacities of 200 GB, 400 GB and 800 GB.

The V7000 integrates with IBM's Tivoli suite of storage management, including Tivoli Storage FlashCopy, Tivoli Storage Manager, Storage Manager FastBack and more.

The IBM Storwize V7000 is organized by control enclosures. Each enclosure contains dual redundant controllers, running on an 8-core 1.9 GHz Intel Xeon processor with 32 GB or 64 GB of cache. Each control enclosure supports up to 20 expansion enclosures, which attach with a 12 Gbps SAS interconnect, providing approximately 1 PB of capacity. The Storwize V7000 can also be organized by scalable clustered systems, which are essentially four control enclosures and any associated expansion enclosures acting as one storage system. The clustered system layout supports a maximum of 1,056 drives and a maximum of 6 PB of capacity. The V7000 has a variety of host interfaces, including 8 Gbps/16 Gbps Fibre Channel, 1 Gbps iSCSI, 10 Gbps iSCSI or 10 Gbps Fibre Channel over Ethernet. It also supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10.

The Storwize V7000 comes with a list of features for data center management. The array supports thin provisioning and comes with IBM Easy Tier software, an auto-tiering function that responds to the presence of a hybrid flash configuration by placing the most frequently used data in the fastest tier of storage. The V7000 integrates with IBM's Tivoli suite of storage management, including Tivoli Storage FlashCopy, Tivoli Storage Manager, Storage Manager FastBack and more. The array also supports remote file-based replication.

IBM does not publish pricing for the Storwize V7000, but various sources provide a list price for a configured hardware and software bundle ranging from $375,000 to $600,000, depending on the configuration. In addition to the included features, IBM has a three-year limited warranty on hardware, including customer-replaceable units, on-site service and next business day response. A software maintenance agreement is available, and IBM provides an online support service.

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Would the Storwize V7000 or a lower-capacity IBM array be most beneficial to your environment?