IBM Unveils Linux-enabled Storage Products

IBM Corp. has been pouring money into Linux lately, vowing to spend $1 billion on Linux over the next year and an additional $300 million in Linux services over the next three years. Just where that investment is going became a little clearer Friday as Big Blue raised the curtain on a portfolio of Linux-enabled storage products.

IBM said the products will range from low- to high-end disk and tape systems, adding that they will allow customers to store and integrate data in a variety of formats on any platform throughout their e-business infrastructures.

“Storage networking and Linux are both disruptive technologies that are having major impacts on the Internet and e-business,” said Linda Sanford, senior vice president and group executive, Storage Systems Group. “By enabling all of our storage products for Linux we again prove our ability to translate industry leading technologies into open, standards-based solutions for our customers.”

The newly announced products include:

• An Enterprise Storage Server — code-named Shark — which can be connected to an IBM eServer z900 or an S/390 mainframe running Linux
• A Linux compatible Modular Storage Server as a mid-market storage solution
• Linux support for the IBM FAStT200 and FAStT500 disk storage servers connected to Intel-based servers
• Linear Tape Open (LTO) Ultrium drives supporting Linux for tape back-up solutions
• Linux-enabled versions of the entire line of Tivoli storage management software.

Tivoli Storage Manager, geared towards data protection, recovery and back-up, is currently Linux-enabled for both eServer xSeries and eServer z900 series. IBM said it will be fully Linux-enabled later this year. Tivoli SANergy, which enables file sharing across different platforms, is enabled for Linux on Intel-based platforms. The company has completed Linux integration with Tivoli Store Network Manager for Intel and anticipates completing integration for other platforms later this year.