Las Vegas, Starnberg, 28. Juni 2017 - Ermöglicht ab sofort den Aufbau und kosteneffizienten Betrieb von Cloud-Scale-Anwendungen im eigenen Rechenzentrum...

Zum Hintergrund: IBM kündigt auf der gerade stattfindenden CiscoLive 2017 in Las Vegas an, dass Betreiber von Cisco UCS Server-Umgebungen (S3260 Storage Server, C220 Rock Servers, Cisco Nexus 9K Switches / 40 G Fabric) jetzt ihre datenintensiven Workloads on-premise mit IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS) sicher verwalten können (1). Nach der integrierten RZ-Infrastruktur - Ankündigung im März zu Cisco UCS und IBM Spectrum Software Defined Storage bietet die neue IBM "VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage" ein von Cisco vor-validiertes (CVD), getestetes und somit offiziell unterstütztes Systemdesign speziell für unstrukturierte Daten und Anwendungsfälle wie active archives, backup, content repositories sowie Enterprise Collaboration und Cloud Application Development.

IBM Cloud Object Storage (ex Cleversafe) ist eine Object Datenspeicher-Software (software defined storage), die eine extreme Skalierbarkeit (webscale / von TBs zu PBs in Minuten) und hohe Leistung auf Basis von Industrie-Standard-Servern und eben jetzt auch Cisco UCS bietet (Konfigurationsdetails siehe auch Abb. 2 unten). Das System ist laut Anbieter ab sofort verfügbar (Querverweis: Mehr zum Thema „massiv skalierbare Filesysteme und Cloud Object Storage" konnten Sie auch im Rahmen unserer 18. Anwendertagung am 20. Juni 2017 in München erfahren; als registrierter Benutzer dieser Webseite haben Sie Zugriff auf die freigegebenen Vortrags-PDFs).

Abb. 1: IBM Cloud Object Storage (Bildquelle: Cisco, IBM)

(1) Quelle / Auszug aus der IBM US-Originalmeldung:

• "Businesses rely on a variety of storage architectures, including file and block storage for traditional workloads and performance-centric applications. Today’s organizations are increasingly adding object storage for its massive scalability, cost efficiency and ability to manage rich, user-definable metadata.

• IBM and Cisco have collaborated to simplify and speed object storage adoption for customers with the VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage. The combination of the Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server, C220 Rack Servers and Cisco Nexus 9K switches with IBM Cloud Object Storage System is ideal for data intensive workloads, supporting IT organizations with an easily scalable solution.

• IBM takes a “software-defined/hardware-aware” approach to object storage. IBM Cloud Object Storage provides information about the status of both the logical and physical elements of the system in one view. This includes statistics on the health of disk drives, fans, NICs and the temperature of major system components. Intelligence delivered in the IBM COS Manager makes it easy for a single administrator to manage 10s of petabytes of storage, which can significantly lower the total cost of ownership for large scale object storage systems.

Customers can use their same on-premises Cisco hardware and server management tools to add IBM Cloud Object Storage to their current IT environments, allowing them to manage their data – from petabyte to exabyte scale – with reliability, security, availability and disaster recovery – all without replication. This new offering will modernize storage access, so that when clients are ready to extend their workloads into a hybrid cloud storage environment, the processing and tools are already in place for them to use their IBM Cloud Object Storage software, in either a private or hybrid cloud environment. It complements IBM’s high and medium-performance flash and disk storage options, available for Cisco customers via IBM VersaStack, by providing a different kind of storage environment – one that is built for cloud native applications; unstructured data like video, audio, image and documents; and archive and other data protection needs.

Comment: “At IBM, we want to make it easy for organizations to adapt their IT environments when business needs change,” said Phil Buckellew, general manager, IBM Cloud Object Storage. “Providing IBM Cloud Object Storage for Cisco hardware customers does just that – it allows them to use their existing investments to gain massive scalability for large volumes of data or changing business needs, with the option to extend into the IBM Cloud if and when it makes sense for them.”

Abb. 2. Hardware-Konfigurationsübersicht (Bildquelle: VersaStack by Cisco Validated Design)

Link > VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage backed by Cisco Validated Design (CVD)

Appendix: CVD provides guidance on design and deployment of the solution, enabling Cisco customers and channel resellers to repeat the successful approaches they have taken with other Cisco validated solutions and seamlessly add object storage to their IT tool kit. It also simplifies the integration process for Cisco customers, who can now use their existing Cisco purchasing agreements and support structure to implement a flexible IBM Cloud Object Storage environment.

The VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage is available now, joining a growing family of VersaStack solutions jointly developed by IBM and Cisco. VersaStack solutions now have 19 validations (combined CVDs and Redbooks), enabling IBM and Cisco’s joint customers to address a wide range of workloads and use cases."