Today, IBM has announced the next version of their DS8000 family enterprise-level block storage device. The first two models to be released, titled DS8A10 and DS8A50, are follow-ons to the DS8910 and DS8950 models.
Operating at the very high end of the block storage spectrum, these systems can do it all (fixed block, IBM i, and CKD storage) with exceptional reliability and performance for the most demanding clients. As such, IBM’s tagline for the marketing of this system is “Always Available, Always Performing, Always Innovating, Always Ready” and, with that in mind, we’re going to dial in on performance and innovation.
Contributing mightily to performance improvements is the new “plumbing” in the box, as the PCIe Gen 3 bus has been replaced with PCIe Gen 4 throughout. The I/O bays, flash enclosures, and zHyperLink have all been redesigned to take advantage of this upgrade, which, impressively, doubles the available bandwidth.
The third-generation flash enclosure design swaps out SAS connectivity for NVMe, and couples that with the PCIe enhancements to double both the available throughput and IOPs. There are four options for what IBM calls “Industry Standard NVMe Flash” drives, as well as—and this is where it gets very interesting—three sizes of IBM’s own custom-designed FlashCore Modules (FCM 4)!
There’s also more good news for those of us who have implemented Safeguarded Copy (SGC) and have had to deal with the dreaded “virtual addressing limit.” These systems will, at a minimum, double the virtual address limit from ~3.4 PB to around 8 PB for CKD volumes with small extents. Since pools built with FCMs are thin provisioned on the hardware itself, only written tracks consume space, regardless of the extent size. Therefore, you can now achieve excellent performance and efficiency even when using large extents for use cases such as SGC. And when employing said large extents, the virtual addressing limit of the largest DS8A50 then becomes 29 PB!
The DS8A10 and DS8A50 are further examples of IBM’s continued commitment to the Mainframe, as the company persists in applying funding to enhance its z-Synergy features. The completely redesigned zHyperLink provides enhanced performance metrics, such as an impressive 2.5x increase in link write throughput.
As a long-standing IBM Platinum Business Partner, Converge Technology Solutions shares IBM’s ongoing dedication to enhancing and updating the products and services we jointly offer our customers to continually best solve their business needs. The launch of this latest DS8000 storage offering is an exciting solution to many of our clients’ challenges and we’re pleased to begin offering the “always ready” functionality in every situation where needed.
