3 minute read
Small businesses are the engine behind the worlds economic output. According to the World Bank, “They represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide.” Why is it then that so many of the leading storage system vendors relegate small businesses to feature depleted, second-tier storage systems — reserving their best efforts only for large enterprises? Small businesses deserve more!
Meet the IBM FlashSystem 5000 and 5100 – enterprise storage systems designed for entry environments.
These systems are engineered with the best from IBM Enterprise Design Thinking(1) for intentional simplicity. From installation, to initial configuration, to ongoing monitoring and support, these systems are simple. And that simplicity is extended to the full set of enterprise capabilities that many other vendors reserve for only their expensive high-end equipment. I’m referring to things like encryption, compression and deduplication, two and three-site replication that can include the cloud, and automation with open source tools like Red Hat Ansible. As I discussed in my post Change in the storage industry is coming – and it’s good!, IBM now offers a single software stack, Spectrum Virtualize, on enterprise systems from entry to high-end, on multiple public clouds, and across over 500 heterogeneous on-premises storage systems. That’s why small businesses can now benefit from rich capabilities once reserved only for large enterprises.
Like all storage based on Spectrum Virtualize…
These systems are simple to monitor.
Take a quick tour of Storage Insights.
Keeping track of system performance, capacity utilization, and overall health is simple. IBM Storage Insights is software-as-a-service (SaaS), delivered securely from the IBM Cloud. It is included with any IBM FlashSystem storage as well as many other IBM storage offerings. Because it’s SaaS, it is like IBM has become a part of your operations and support team – keeping the service updated and running, watching for issues in your storage, and helping you resolve them. This consistent operational view of storage can contribute to better data availability for your applications, better asset utilization, and better overall performance.
These systems are simple to support.
Watch a demonstration of opening a support ticket with Storage Insights.
To prevent potential issues from impacting your business, Storage Insights collects detailed telemetry from your system and applies analytics to predict potential failure conditions and proactively notify you of risks. Experience to-date suggests about two-thirds of potential issues can be averted automatically. In the event you do need support, Storage Insights simplifies the process of both opening and tracking tickets, as well as collecting and uploading diagnostic information all with the goal of getting your issue resolved quickly. This simplicity can result in 40% faster action plans.
Check back next week when I’ll discuss more about connecting these systems to the cloud with Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud.
What do you think? Which enterprise storage capabilities have you been waiting for in an affordable entry package?
(1) IBM Enterprise Design Thinking is a best practice that IBM teaches and certifies practitioners on across the industry. It is the method we use to ensure our offerings deliver great experiences to our customers.
The Line -- by Ron Riffe 
Great blog! #IBMStorage No time to read? No problem! Videos can be a great way to learn about IBM Storage Insights & the best practices for your environment. Explore our dedicated #YouTube channel to help get the most out of your experience. Subscribe now: http://ibm.biz/insightsyoutube
LikeLiked by 1 person