IBM today announced its latest all-flash array, the V840 virtualized storage system with 1.6 Petabyte compressed storage capacity (320 TB total usable un-compressed flash capacity) in a single 6U array. IBM says the new system provides a five-fold performance improvement over its IBM predecessor and 1.2 million input/output operations per second (IOPS). IBM is positioning the array as less expensive than high-performance disk in total cost of ownership (TCO) and working to make it less expensive in total cost of acquisition as well, says Keven Powell, director of IBM flash product marketing and management.

“We’re seeing more of the value of the high performance market move toward software as well,” said Michael Kuhn, Vice President of IBM Flash. In response, “we are aggressively moving to implement a software-defined storage strategy.”

The “V” in the V840 stands for “virtualized”. It comes with the latest version of IBM’s storage virtualization, a key component in IBM’s software-defined storage technology, which can support virtualization of more than 260 different IBM and third-party storage products, pre-installed. IBM has already published reference architectures for software-defined infrastructure, and Powell said the company is working with software partners to develop a formal software-defined system offering that includes the V840, Power 8 servers and IBM network switches.

Andy Walls, distinguished engineer, CTO & chief architect for IBM flash systems said the improvements in the V840 include 36 percent more power-efficient control enclosures, reduction in the number of physical chassis from five to three, and increased capacity options with a 1 TB capacity module (see video below).

Market leader

The high performance array market is reaching the tipping point where flash will replace disk, Kuhn said. “Clients are starting to say they are not sure if they will spend any money on high-performance disks moving forward.” The result, the all-flash array segment is growing ten times faster than the overall enterprise storage market.

IBM sees low latency as a strategic differentiator for its 840 and V840 arrays. It said customer Sprint Corp., for example, saw a 45-times (4,500%) improvement in latency when it moved from high-speed disk to the 840 array. “For Sprint, having information on the customer — what he bought in the past, any problems he had, and what he might need now — on the call center operator’s screen while that customer is on the phone is invaluable,” said Powell. Getting that information two minutes after the call ends is not.

The V840 supports InfiniBand and fibre channel as well as FCOE and iSCSI networking. It also will support the Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI) IBM is developing for Power 8, including IBM’s own new Power 8 server and those the members of the Open Power Initiative may build. Powell says CAPI is an order of magnitude faster than either InfiniBand or fibre channel, giving it extremely low latency.

IBM, which Gartner named the leader in the all-flash array sales in its market report in early June, has sold 82 petabytes of flash across its entire product line, including all-flash arrays and flash in servers over the last two years.

The V840 fits directly into IBM’s strategy for capturing the high-performance market, Powell said. The first point is to move beyond solid-state drives (SSDs) by building a unique technology.

Secondly, it hardens the system for enterprise data centers, adding things like concurrent code load and encryption. Thirdly, it adds advanced software including its in-line data compression software and SEC virtualization code. 

“Part of the $1 billion investment IBM has made in flash is we’ve put these 12 Flash Centers of Competency around the world.” Customers can do tests and development in these using copies of their own databases to benchmark performance and see how est to leverage flash in their environments. in the process, IBM learns more about the precise needs of customers to inform its product develooment.

IBM V840 Infographic courtesy IBM Corp.

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