IBM adds SAN to BladeCenter S | | 2008-10-06 | | | IBM has added storage area network (SAN) capability to its BladeCenter S product. Aimed at SMB’s and branch offices of larger businesses, the enhanced bladecenter offers a cost effective blade server virtualization environment.A new RAIDed shared storage module turns existing direct-storage devices into a SAN, allowing BladeCenter S owners to support complex virtualization environments such as the VMotion feature of VMware’s ESX Server.The BladeCenter S chassis has room for six server blades, and two hard drive bays with room for up to 12 750-Gbyte SAS hard drives for a capacity of up to 9 Tbytes. The new RSSM allows hard drives to be networked together as a SAN which can be shared by the blade servers.IBM has also added two new software features:- Start Now, a GUI-based tool to help set up the servers, storage, and switches within 30 minutes and Service Advisor which alerts IT staff of impending problems.The new IBM BladeCenter S shared storage capability is expected to begin shipping in volume later this month and starts at $2,599, which includes power supplies, fans, rack rails and a DVD/CD combo drive. | |
|
