Updated for R8.51 This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8880 family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8880 systems. The IBM DS8000® family is a high-performance, high-capacity, highly secure, and resilient series of disk storage systems. The DS8880 family is the latest and most advanced of the DS8000 offerings to date. The high availability, multiplatform support, including IBM Z, and simplified management tools help provide a cost-effective path to an on-demand and cloud-based infrastructures. The IBM DS8880 family now offers business-critical, all-flash, and hybrid data systems that span a wide range of price points: DS8882F: Rack Mounted storage system DS8884: Business Class DS8886: Enterprise Class DS8888: Analytics Class The DS8884 and DS8886 are available as either hybrid models, or can be configured as all-flash. Each model represents the most recent in this series of high-performance, high-capacity, flexible, and resilient storage systems. These systems are intended to address the needs of the most demanding clients. Two powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers manage the cache to streamline disk I/O, maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of the second generation of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFEs Gen-2) and newer flash drives. Like its predecessors, the DS8880 supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8880 storage system include the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8880 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives, by using the IBM Easy Tier® feature. Release 8.5 introduces the Safeguarded Copy feature. The DS8882F Rack Mounted is decribed in a separate publication, Introducing the IBM DS8882F Rack Mounted Storage System, REDP-5505.

This IBM Redbooks® Product Guide gives an overview of the features and functions that are available with the IBM DS8880 models running microcode Release 8.51 (DS8000 License Machine Code 8.8.51.xx.xx). The IBM DS8880 architecture relies on powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers that manage the cache to streamline disk input/output (I/O), maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of the second generation of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFE Gen-2). The IBM DS8888, DS8886, and DS8884 models excel at supporting the IBM Z Enterprise server and IBM Power server environments, offering many synergy features.

The IBM® System Storage® Solutions Handbook helps you solve your current and future data storage business requirements. It helps you achieve enhanced storage efficiency by design to allow managed cost, capacity of growth, greater mobility, and stronger control over storage performance and management. It describes the most current IBM storage products, including the IBM SpectrumTM family, IBM FlashSystem®, disk, and tape, as well as virtualized solutions such IBM Storage Cloud. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides overviews and information about the most current IBM System Storage products. It shows how IBM delivers the right mix of products for nearly every aspect of business continuance and business efficiency. IBM storage products can help you store, safeguard, retrieve, and share your data. This book is intended as a reference for basic and comprehensive information about the IBM Storage products portfolio. It provides a starting point for establishing your own enterprise storage environment. This book describes the IBM Storage products as of March, 2016.