IBM
August 22, 2006 in Imported by Bob Hagen
Local IBM division rolls out bigger, faster storage disk
Tucson Citizen
Published: 08.22.2006
More and faster are two watchwords in technology.
IBM Storage Systems Divisions in Tucson announced today that employees have accomplished both in IBM’s VCR-sized disk system developed here a year and a half ago.
The older system, DS8000, was small, flexible, fast and had big capacity. The new version has more storage capacity and is faster – hence the name DS8000 Turbo.
By combining the VCR-sized units, IBM has increased total potential storage capacity from 192 terabytes to 320 terabytes. That’s storing all of the information in the Library of Congress eight times over, said Alistair Symon, program manager in Tucson.
That’s the more.
For the faster, information retrieval is about 15 percent quicker, he said.
And while this may not increase employment from the current 1,700 at the plant here, it does “further our commitment to the storage development business in IBM,” he said.
The DS8000, announced in 2004, has improved IBM’s market share in mega-capacity disk storage industry.
Before the DS8000 was introduced, EMC Corp., the market leader, had a 13 percentage point advantage in the market over IBM. That has been whittled down to 7 points, Symon said and he estimates the newer, faster version will further cut into EMC’s market share.
The new DS8000 Turbo, starting price $213,400, has applications in health care, for patient files, the financial industry for credit card data and “all main industry segments,” Symon said.
IBM today also announced improvements in two other of its systems built in Tucson, which increase the company’s storage system flexibility and reliability.
