Flexible, responsive and efficient storage, featuring Bridgeworks' SANSlide technology

These offerings help customers reduce the complexities and cost of managing their storage through:
· Centralizing management of storage volumes, enabling administrators to manage storage volumes from a single point
· Improving utilization of storage capacity with virtual volumes, enabling businesses to tap into previously unused disk capacity
· Avoiding downtime for backups, maintenance, and upgrades
· Performing data migration without disruption to applications
· Enabling all storage devices to be organized into storage pools from which virtual volumes, whether standard, compressed, or thin-provisioned, are created with the desired characteristics
· Delivering automation of storage management with the Virtual Storage Center, Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center (as applicable by platform), and Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager (as applicable by platform)
· Increasing the performance efficiency of storage pools that use SSDs with Easy Tier
· Restoring data access quickly with near and remote copy capabilities across Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and IP networks

IBM Storwize Family Software V7.2 introduces replication over IP networks that is easy to configure in existing IP infrastructures. This is a lower-cost alternative to the Fibre Channel-based and FCoE-based replication, eliminating the need for FCIP routers and dark fibre. By placing the IP replication function in the Storwize Family Software, server CPU and management overhead is freed up, and a single point of replication control is available for all server types. This release also includes SAS migration capability for the Storwize V5000, Storwize V3700, and Storwize V3500.

Enhanced stretched cluster for SAN Volume Controller optimizes inter-site networking and enables planned site failover. Remote mirroring and VMware environments will benefit from support for VMware 5.5 and being a provider for the vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA).

In more detail, IBM Storwize Family Software version 7.2 includes:
· Remote Mirroring over IP communication links: The Remote Mirroring function (also referred to as Metro/Global Mirror) is now supported using Ethernet communication links. Storwize Family Software IP replication uses innovative Bridgeworks SANSlide technology to optimize network bandwidth and utilization. This new function enables the use of lower speed and lower cost networking infrastructure for data replication. Bridgeworks' SANSlide technology integrated into IBM Storwize Family Software uses artificial intelligence to help optimize network bandwidth utilization and adapt to changing workload and network conditions. This technology can improve remote mirroring network bandwidth utilization up to three times, which may enable clients to deploy a less costly network infrastructure or speed remote replication cycles to enhance disaster recovery effectiveness.
· Enhanced Stretched Cluster for SAN Volume Controller: Prior to this release, stretched cluster configurations did not provide manual failover capability, and data being sent across a long distance link had the potential to be sent twice. The addition of 'site awareness' in Storwize Family Software V7.2 routes I/O traffic between SVC nodes and storage controllers to optimize the data flow, and it polices I/O traffic during a failure condition to allow for a manual cluster invocation to ensure consistency. The use of stretched cluster continues to follow all the same hardware installation guidelines as previously announced and found in the product documentation. Use of enhanced stretched cluster is optional, and existing stretched cluster configurations will continue to be supported.
· Performance improvements for asynchronous remote mirroring: Enhancements to the asynchronous remote mirroring function enables improved throughput of remotely replicated data.
· vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA): Storwize Family Software V7.2 enables users to get more capability out of their VMware environments by being a provider for the vSphere API for Storage Awareness.
· Data Migration using SAS connectivity on Storwize V3500, V3700, and V5000: Data migration support is standard on all Storwize V3500, V3700, and V5000 systems and this function can now be performed using SAS connectivity to help you easily and nondisruptively migrate data from IBM System Storage DS3200 and DS3500 systems onto Storwize V3500, V3700, and V5000.