“You can’t tell the players without a program …”

That’s what the guy selling programs yells before the hockey game starts as we walk into the arena. With trades and free-agent signings, it can be true that you don’t know the players on your favorite team without a program!

It’s also an especially appropriate concept in today’s IT world with its frenzied speed of change.

That’s why I decided to provide this “program” with hopes that it will help you tell the players in IBM’s storage portfolio as IBM begins rebranding its storage offerings (again…).   

IBM is in the process of renaming its storage offerings, and simplifying the messaging around its storage, to make the IBM breadth of offerings easier to understand and position. The company started by grouping its offerings under three main categories, each a major customer challenge area.

In each of these three areas, there is a targeted software-only offering, as well as a software with supporting hardware offering.

We will drill down a layer in each of these below.

Challenge Area: Adoption of AI/ML and HPC workloads

Solution Name: IBM Storage for Data and AI

Software:        

IBM Storage Scale for high performance environments, formerly known as IBM Spectrum Scale, GPFS   

IBM Storage Ceph for general purpose workloads, formerly known as Red Hat Storage Ceph

Hardware:      

IBM Storage Scale System, formerly known as IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS)

Challenge Area: Hybrid Cloud Application Transformation

Solution Name: IBM Storage for Hybrid Cloud

Software:        

IBM Storage Fusion, formerly known as IBM Spectrum Fusion – a combination of Spectrum Scale and Spectrum Protect Plus           

Hardware:      

IBM Storage Fusion HCI System

Challenge Area: Ensuring Data Resiliency in the face of malware

Solution Name: IBM Storage for Data Resilience

Software:        

IBM Storage Defender, formerly known as – no, this is NEW! More to follow throughout 2023. A combination of IBM and non-IBM components integrated. Will include existing functions like IBM Safeguarded Copy (immutable copies of data), adding AI and a single pane of glass to supported multiple storage platforms.     

Hardware:      

IBM DS8000, FlashSystem, Tape, and Networking products.

What’s the net result of all this change? A shorter list of options for customers (a good thing), a design for a common malware solution across multiple hardware products (another good thing), and rebranding from “IBM Spectrum” to “IBM Storage”.

That’s the new roster. You’ve got your program.

And you can always contact us if you get confused, something you can't do in the arena.

Drop the puck!

About the author

Michael Zwolski is a zSystems and Storage Solution Advisor with LRS IT Solutions. With more than 30 years of experience supporting Fortune 100 IBM customers in the areas of mainframe and enterprise storage, Michael is skilled at interfacing between technical and business resources. His knowledge of IBM storage solutions including DS8000, FlashSystem, SVC, and TS7000 and others make him a valuable asset on storage projects.