Today, new business models in the marketplace coexist with traditional ones and their well-established IT architectures. They generate new business needs and new IT requirements that can only be satisfied by new service models and new technological approaches. These changes are reshaping traditional IT concepts. Cloud in its three main variants (Public, Hybrid, and Private) represents the major and most viable answer to those IT requirements, and software-defined infrastructure (SDI) is its major technological enabler. IBM® technology, with its rich and complete set of storage hardware and software products, supports SDI both in an open standard framework and in other vendors' environments. IBM services are able to deliver solutions to the customers with their extensive knowledge of the topic and the experiences gained in partnership with clients. This IBM RedpaperTM publication focuses on software-defined storage (SDS) and IBM Storage Systems product offerings for software-defined environments (SDEs). It also provides use case examples across various industries that cover different client needs, proposed solutions, and results. This paper can help you to understand current organizational capabilities and challenges, and to identify specific business objectives to be achieved by implementing an SDS solution in your enterprise.

Object storage is the primary storage solution that is used in the cloud and on-premises solutions as a central storage platform for unstructured data. IBM Cloud Object Storage is a software-defined storage (SDS) platform that breaks down barriers for storing massive amounts of data by optimizing the placement of data on commodity x86 servers across the enterprise. This IBM Redbooks® publication describes the major features, use case scenarios, deployment options, configuration details, initial customization, performance, and scalability considerations of IBM Cloud Object Storage on-premises offering. For more information about the IBM Cloud Object Storage architecture and technology that is behind the product, see IBM Cloud Object Storage Concepts and Architecture , REDP-5537. The target audience for this publication is IBM Cloud Object Storage IT specialists and storage administrators.

Because of the explosion of unstructured data that is generated by individuals and organizations, a new storage paradigm that is called object storage has been developed. Object storage stores data in a flat namespace that scales to trillions of objects. The design of object storage also simplifies how users access data, supporting new types of applications and allowing users to access data by using various methods, including mobile devices and web applications. Data distribution and management are also simplified, allowing greater collaboration across the globe. OpenStack Swift is an emerging open source object storage software platform that is widely used for cloud storage. IBM® Spectrum Scale, which is based on IBM General Parallel File System (IBM GPFSTM) technology, is a high-performance and proven product that is used to store data for thousands of mission-critical commercial installations worldwide. Throughout this IBM RedpaperTM publication, IBM SpectrumTM Scale is used to refer to GPFS. The examples in this paper are based on IBM Spectrum ScaleTM V4.2.2. IBM Spectrum Scale also automates common storage management tasks, such as tiering and archiving at scale. Together, IBM Spectrum Scale and OpenStack Swift provide an enterprise-class object storage solution that efficiently stores, distributes, and retains critical data. This paper provides instructions about setting up and configuring IBM Spectrum Scale Object Storage that is based on OpenStack Swift. It also provides an initial set of preferred practices that ensure optimal performance and reliability. This paper is intended for administrators who are familiar with IBM Spectrum Scale and OpenStack Swift components.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication takes you on a journey that surveys cloud computing to answer several fundamental questions about storage cloud technology. What are storage clouds? How can a storage cloud help solve your current and future data storage business requirements? What can IBM do to help you implement a storage cloud solution that addresses these needs? This paper shows how IBM storage clouds use the extensive cloud computing experience, services, proven technologies, and products of IBM to support a smart storage cloud solution designed for your storage optimization efforts. Clients face many common storage challenges and some have variations that make them unique. It describes various successful client storage cloud implementations and the options that are available to meet your current needs and position you to avoid storage issues in the future. IBM CloudTM Services (IBM Cloud Managed Services® and IBM SoftLayer®) are highlighted as well as the contributions of IBM to OpenStack cloud storage. This paper is intended for anyone who wants to learn about storage clouds and how IBM addresses data storage challenges with smart storage cloud solutions. It is suitable for IBM clients, storage solution integrators, and IBM specialist sales representatives.

IBM® Spectrum Control (Spectrum Control), a member of the IBM SpectrumTM Family of products, is the next-generation data management solution for software-defined environments (SDEs). With support for block, file, object workloads, and software-defined storage and predictive analytics, and automated and advanced monitoring to identify proactively storage performance problems, Spectrum Control enables administrators to provide efficient management for heterogeneous storage environments. IBM Spectrum ControlTM (formerly IBM Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center) delivers a complete set of functions to manage IBM Spectrum VirtualizeTM, IBM Spectrum AccelerateTM, and IBM Spectrum ScaleTM storage infrastructures, and traditional IBM and select third-party storage hardware systems. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides practical examples and use cases that can be deployed with IBM Spectrum Control Standard Edition, with an overview of IBM Spectrum Control Advanced Edition. This book complements the Spectrum Control IBM Knowledge Center, which is referenced for product details, and for installation and implementation details throughout this book. You can find this resource at the following website: IBM Spectrum Control Knowledge Center Also provided are descriptions and an architectural overview of the IBM Spectrum Family, highlighting Spectrum Control, as integrated into software-defined storage environments. This publication is intended for storage administrators, clients who are responsible for maintaining IT and business infrastructures, and anyone who wants to learn more about employing Spectrum Control and Spectrum Control Standard Edition.

High-speed I/O workloads are moving away from the SAN to Ethernet and IBM® Spectrum Scale is pushing the network limits. The IBM Spectrum® Scale team discovered that many infrastructure Ethernet networks that were used for years to support various applications are not designed to provide a high-performance data path concurrently to many clients from many servers. IBM Spectrum Scale is not the first product to use Ethernet for storage access. Technologies, such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), scale out NAS, and IP connected storage (iSCSI and others) use Ethernet though IBM Spectrum Scale as the leader in parallel I/O performance, which provides the best performance and value when used on a high-performance network. This IBM Redpaper publication is based on lessons that were learned in the field by deploying IBM Spectrum Scale on Ethernet and InfiniBand networks. This IBM Redpaper® publication answers several questions, such as, "How can I prepare my network for high performance storage?", "How do I know when I am ready?", and "How can I tell what is wrong?" when deploying IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Elastic Storage® Server (ESS). This document can help IT architects get the design correct from the beginning of the process. It also can help the IBM Spectrum Scale administrator work effectively with the networking team to quickly resolve issues.

Today's information technology (IT) infrastructure is fully entwined with basic business operations, so crucial business questions become IT questions. What is it worth to stay ahead of the competition? What is a better online customer experience worth to the bottom line? What advantages are gained by making faster, more informed business decisions? Can you afford not to have the best possible fraud protection and data security? When you answer these business-critical questions in terms of IT infrastructure, and recognize the crucial role storage plays in correct answers, the value of IBM® FlashSystemTM skyrockets. This IBM Redbooks® Product Guide describes IBM FlashSystem® V9000, which is a comprehensive all-flash enterprise storage solution that delivers the full capabilities of IBM FlashCoreTM technology. In addition, it provides a rich set of software-defined storage features, including IBM Real-time CompressionTM, dynamic tiering, thin provisioning, snapshots, cloning, replication, data copy services, and IBM HyperSwap® for high availability. With the release of FlashSystem V9000 Software V7.6, extra functions are available, including VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVol) support, encryption support for externally virtualized storage, and an integrated IBM Comprestimator utility. Support also exists for VMware 6 that enhances and improves scalability in a VMware environment. FlashSystem V9000 Software version 7.6 replaces version 7.5, and is available to all IBM FlashSystem V9000 customers with current warranty or software maintenance agreements. For information about IBM FashSystem V9000 version 7.7 see "IBM FashSystem V9000 Version 7.7 Product Guide", REDP-5409 at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5409.html?Open

This IBM® Redbooks® publication offers a short overview of IBM's integrated environment for container workloads, IBM Storage Fusion. The product comes in two variants, IBM Storage Fusion HCI System including all required hardware, and IBM Storage Fusion SDS (software-only) for deployment in public or private Clouds. This paper has been updated with the 2.5.1 release only for IBM Storage Fusion and the 2.5.2 release of IBM Storage Fusion HCI System.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication introduces and describes the IBM Elastic StorageTM Server as a scalable, high-performance data and file management solution. The solution is built on proven IBM SpectrumTM Scale technology, formerly IBM General Parallel File System (GPFSTM). IBM Elastic Storage Servers can be implemented for a range of diverse requirements, providing reliability, performance, and scalability. This publication helps you to understand the solution and its architecture and helps you to plan the installation and integration of the environment. The following combination of physical and logical components are required: Hardware Operating system Storage Network Applications This paper provides guidelines for several usage and integration scenarios. Typical scenarios include Cluster Export Services (CES) integration, disaster recovery, and multicluster integration. This paper addresses the needs of technical professionals (consultants, technical support staff, IT Architects, and IT Specialists) who must deliver cost-effective cloud services and big data solutions.

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.