Our favorite 3 things about the new IBM FlashSystem 840
IBM's $1B investment in Flash-based R&D announced early in 2013 is really starting to pay some dividends in our opinion. Not only on the server-side with the recent IBM X6 eXFlash DIMM announcements, but also with a new model of IBM's FlashSystems line (of which Mark III is a huge fan, as many of you know).
What are our favorite things about the *NEW* FlashSystem 840?
1) MORE! - Quite simply, the new FlashSystem 840 can store up to 40TB usable (RAID5), which is 2x more capacity than the previous FlashSystem 820. If you combine this ultra-fast storage capacity with a unique IBM capacity-optimizing technology like Real-time Compression, you can really boost the performance of your critical applications in an ultra-compact form factor, all without breaking the bank.
2) New GUI - This was a somewhat predictable move by IBM, but the FlashSystem management GUI has been re-skinned to match IBM's SVC/V7000 (and XIV before that) GUI look and feel. The ease-of-use is obviously incredible and IBM's consistency across products has been one of the best moves they've made from a storage perspective in the last 10 years, in our opinion.
3) Excellent RAS - Everything on the 840 is designed to be hot-swappable, easy to service, and very supportive of concurrent code loads. In short, everything you'd expect an IBM storage system to support. If you're ultra-paranoid, you can always combine the 840 with SVC vDisk Mirroring (and Real-time Compression) to create a leading-edge and truly unique storage infrastructure in every aspect.