The DS4800 devices will be the latest in the series of arrays that IBM has been OEM’ing from Engenio Technologies since 2002, when the arrays were called FastT’s, and Engenio was called LSI Logic’s storage division.
Early last month Storage Technology promised to beat IBM to the pip as the first big supplier to offer 4GFC arrays, which it is also OEMing from Engenio. StorageTek said then that these devices would ship within thirty days.
Analysts agree that very few customers yet need 4GFC, although they will be happy to buy hardware that is future-proofed with that support. StorageTek even admitted last month that the arrays they were shipping two years ago would still satisfy most customers’ needs for throughput.
The DS4800 arrays will replace DS4500 devices as the fastest devices in the series, and will introduce hot-swappable midplanes. In fact everything on the device is now hot-swappable. I think that’s unique, said Craig Butler, IBM product marketing manager.
IBM said the move underlines its commitment to its OEM deal with Engenio. Last year there was speculation that IBM will eventually phase out its DS4000 devices in favor of the upper-midrange DS6000 arrays that it developed in-house, and launched in October.
Nothing could be further from the truth, said Butler.
The DS6000 series of arrays are baby Sharks smaller version of IBM’s flagship DS8000 arrays. Unlike the DS4000s, the DS6000s can replicate data to DS8000s natively. Also unlike DS4000s, they can be linked to iSeries – OS/400 – and zSeries – mainframe – hosts. But IBM has acknowledged that it could develop cheaper versions of the DS6000, and analysts say that it roadmap for the DS4000 is very vague beyond this year.
