NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp. on Tuesday launched mid-range
data storage packages of equipment and services aimed at providing one-stop
shopping for business trying to protect information.
The 25 different packages incorporate IBM's FAStT 700 storage arrays to route
data, TotalStorage disk drive systems that hold the data, and integration from
IBM Global Services.
Walter Raizner, IBM general manager for storage products, said IBM was
bringing data replication software previously available only on top of the line
Shark systems to the mid-range.
Data storage networking companies have seen demand slide like most of the
technology industry this year, but the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
US Pentagon on Sept. 11 have spurred new interest in disaster recovery systems
which include storage.
"In the mid-range they don't have the skills, the knowledge, the time or
the money to do basic research to figure out how they best can bring the
technologies of vendors together," Raizner said.
IBM has made inroads in the high-end storage market against leading storage
maker EMC Corp. but it hasn't been known for its role in the mid-range market,
where Dell Computer Corp. is also a substantial player.
The FAStT 700 storage system, which works with IBM servers and some servers
based on Intel Corp. processors, can transfer data twice as fast as the current
model at two gigabits, or billion bits, per second when combined with specific
IBM technology, IBM said.
(C) Reuters Limited.