IBM VersaStack
Converged infrastructure solution, jointly developed by IBM and Cisco, delivers extraordinary efficiency, performance and economics

Features:

Industry leadership

IBM and Cisco boast a 15+ year history of demonstrated joint success with more than 25,000 shared customers.

Public, private & hybrid multicloud enabled

VersaStack for Hybrid Multicloud delivers versatile infrastructure that can be extended to public cloud. IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud in conjunction with VersaStack - through native storage replication between on-prem VersaStack and IBM Cloud or Amazon AWS - delivers disaster recovery and supports workload migration. VersaStack for Private Cloud, with IBM Cloud Paks, supports traditional and emerging cloud native applications, for extensive IT automation and cloud-like versatility.

Accelerate business applications

Acclerate the performance of your entire data center or deploy solutions to support specific high-performance applications, with VersaStack, a flash-memory based and NVMe-accelerated solution that can help you create a cost-effective cloud enabled data center infrastructure. Gain faster application performance and near-real-time insights to inform operational decisions.

Comprehensive storage options

All-flash and hybrid data storage options address growing capacity needs - from departmental to large-scale deployments - while IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) helps you optimize existing storage solutions. Add IBM Spectrum Scale™ to support block, file and object data under one industrial-strength management regime.

Secure, single point of control for storage resources

Pool the storage capacity of IBM and non-IBM storage systems on a storage area network (SAN), better manage tiered data, and encrypt all virtualized data for enhanced security from a single point.

IBM Storage Utility Offering

Get the ultimate in flexibility. This new way to procure data capacity provides instant-on access that aligns capacity costs with your business initiatives. It’s unique because it helps you predict your monthly data capacity needs. And, you only pay for the capacity you use monthly, instead of a large up-front expense. No need to over purchase or lease large amounts of capacity for "just in case" needs. Simply use the capacity your business requires and this offering will take care of the rest.

Enable storage efficiencies

IBM data reduction, featuring IBM Real-time Compression™, helps increase storage capacity and lower floor-space, power and cooling requirements. IBM Easy Tier helps balance performance and IT costs in a tiered storage environment.

Simple scalability

Easily and cost-effectively deliver dynamic resource allocation from pooled compute, network and storage resources, whether on-premises or in the cloud. This allows a reduction in design, deployment and management overhead.

Dynamic data movement

Move data across devices, on premises or cloud services, and better manage and scale storage capacity without disrupting application performance or data availability.

Pre-validated solutions

Backed by Cisco Validated Designs and IBM® Redbooks® application guides, VersaStack reduces risk with pre-validated, cost-effective, high-performance solutions. Speed deployment and delivery of applications, while increasing infrastructure efficiency with less risk.

Benefits:

Modernize your data center

Drive data center efficiency, optimization, and performance through VersaStack Solutions to deliver autonomous data center operations, while lowering CAPEX, OPEX and TCO.

Deliver versatile environments

Powerful VersaStack™ solutions allow for dynamic resource allocation from pooled compute, network and storage resources, whether on-premises or in the cloud, with a faster time to deployment.

Enable public and private cloud

Support hybrid and IT as a Service through VersaStack for Hybrid Multicloud to enable on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud deployments.

IBM Storage:

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

IBM Spectrum Virtualize™, industry-leading storage virtualization software, is the foundation of IBM disk and allflash storage systems. It provides software-defined storage capabilities across a variety of platforms, including IBM Storwize V7000 (Unified), Storwize V5000, and FlashSystem V9000. These capabilities can help your IT staff improve efficiency and utilization while reducing complexity and cost.

All IBM and external third-party storage is virtualized, improving the use of storage capacity. Your storage devices can be organized into storage pools-and your standard, compressed, and thin-provisioned virtual volumes are created with the storage characteristics needed by your applications and workloads. As a result, your IT organization can tap into new and previously unused disk storage capacity and further optimize available storage capacity with thin-provisioning techniques.

IBM Spectrum Virtualize™, industry-leading storage virtualization software, is the foundation of IBM disk and allflash storage systems. It provides software-defined storage capabilities across a variety of platforms, including IBM Storwize V7000 (Unified), Storwize V5000, and FlashSystem V9000. These capabilities can help your IT staff improve efficiency and utilization while reducing complexity and cost.

IBM Storwize V5000

IBM Storwize V5000 is a hybrid system that uses solidstate disk (SSD) drives and hard-disk drives (HDDs) to deliver software-defined storage capabilities for midsize businesses. The system can scale up to 480 drives, and up to 960 drives with two-way clustered systems, and it can store up to 1.92 petabytes (PB) per system, and up to 3.84 PB with two-way clustered systems. This system offers:

• Innovative Spectrum Virtualize functions, including dual-clustering for simple scaling, thin provisioning, and external virtualization for higher storage utilization
• An optional IBM FlashCopy function that lets your IT staff create an almost-instant copy of active data, which can be used for backup purposes or for parallel-processing activities
• An IBM HyperSwap function that lets a single Storwize V5000 system support servers in two data centers, with concurrent data access; when combined with VMware vMotion, this configuration enables nondisruptive storage and virtual machine mobility between two data centers.

IBM Storwize V7000 Family

IBM Storwize V7000 and V7000 Unified are powerful hybrid disk storage systems that can support the massive volumes of data created by your demanding cloud, social, mobile, and data center applications. Built with Spectrum Virtualize, these Storwize systems are designed to be efficient, easy to use, and dependable no matter the size of your deployment. This efficient, enterprise-class storage system provides a 2-rack-unit (2RU) chassis and supports up to 96 terabytes (TB) of physical storage per enclosure using 8-TB nearline SAS disk drives. A control enclosure supports the attachment of up to 20 expansion enclosures with configurations of up to 504 drives and approximately 2 PB of physical storage capacity (up to 1056 drives and 7.87 PB in clustered systems). Encryption capabilities help protect data at rest.

The system is versatile and can use SAS disk drives, nearline SAS disk drives, and flash drives. It includes technologies that enhance physical, virtual, and cloud environments, with built-in software-defined functions such as industry-leading virtualization, hardware-assisted realtime compression, analytics-based dynamic data tiering, and support for near-instant data copies for backups and application testing. In addition, the system can be clustered to support growing business needs while controlling costs.

IBM FlashSystem V9000

IBM FlashSystem V9000 is an all-flash enterprise storage solution with scalable performance, agile integration, and enduring economics. Built with IBM Spectrum Virtualize functions, FlashSystem V9000 combines the performance of the FlashSystem architecture with the advanced functions of software-defined storage, including IBM Real-time Compression, dynamic tiering, thin provisioning, snapshots, cloning, replication, data copy services, and high-availability configurations.

Designed as Tier 1 storage with impressive economic value, this all-flash-memory array delivers ultra-low (microsecond) response times through the use of IBM MicroLatency technology. The system accelerates I/O for critical applications through IBM FlashCore technology, which includes advanced flash-memory management features, ultra-fast write buffers, and hardware-based data offload methods, while preserving enterprise resiliency through IBM Variable Stripe RAID and other unique reliability features. You can extend the capabilities of the solution to virtualized external storage capacity, managing up to 32 PB of external storage. Fully redundant, hot-swappable components, multiple RAID layers, XTS and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 encryption, and concurrent code upgrades help increase system uptime and data availability

Complementary IBM Storage Software

IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights

Complementing Cisco UCS Director, IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights adds data and storage optimization capabilities to VersaStack solutions. Delivered as a service from the IBM cloud, the software can be deployed in minutes to deliver multisystem storage performance troubleshooting features. Your IT staff can use predictive analytics to help keep data on optimal storage tiers, improve capacity planning with recommendations for reclamation opportunities, and create application and department views of storage.

IBM Spectrum Protect

IBM Spectrum Protect™ provides comprehensive data protection for VersaStack environments. With this optional software, your IT staff can use a VMware vCenter management interface and provide a self-service portal. With near-instant restore operations, integrated offsite replication, and the capability to use application-aware snapshots, your organization can benefit from scalable efficiency that is delivered entirely in software, reducing backup infrastructure costs by up to 53 percent.

Specifications:

VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud
Component
Network	Cisco Nexus Cisco MDS
Compute	Cisco ONE™ Enterprise Cloud Suite: Cisco CloudCenter Cisco UCS Director Cisco ACI
Storage	IBM FlashSystem V9000 IBM FlashSystem A9000 IBM FlashSystem 900 IBM Storwize V7000 IBM Storwize V7000F IBM Storwize V5000 family
VersaStack with IBM FlashSystem V9000
Component
Network	Cisco Nexus Cisco MDS
Compute	Cisco UCS VMware ESXi VMware vCenter
Storage	IBM FlashSystem V9000 IBM FlashSystem 900
VersaStack with IBM SAN Volume Controller
Component
Network	Cisco Nexus Cisco MDS
Compute	Cisco UCS VMware ESXi VMware vCenter
Storage	IBM SAN Volume Controller with any supported storage (IBM or non-IBM)
VersaStack with IBM Storwize V7000
Component
Network	Cisco Nexus Cisco MDS
Compute	Cisco UCS VMware ESXi VMware vCenter
Storage	Storwize V7000F IBM Storwize V7000
VersaStack with IBM Storwize V5000
Component
Network	Cisco Nexus
Compute	Cisco UCS VMware ESXi VMware vCenter
Storage	IBM Storwize V5030F IBM Storwize V5030 IBM Storwize V5020 IBM Storwize V5010

Documentation:

Download the IBM VersaStack Solution Datasheet (.PDF)