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IBM Leads Team to Alleviate Data Storage Woes

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the square-peg-in-a-round-hole dept.

Kailash Nadh writes to tell us ABC News is reporting that IBM is teaming up with several other companies to form a group called Aperi. This group will attempt to "push the open source idea deeper into computing" and "free up the bottlenecks that can occur when a business has bought tape and disk storage systems from a variety of vendors." The partnership is to include companies like Cisco, Sun, Fujitsu, and several others.

64 comments

  1. .....Subject....? by Stu+L+Tissimus · · Score: 0

    Is it just me or does the subject have nothing to do with the artic--Hey, wait a second, where's the article itself?!

    --
    A wise man once said, "wtf h4x."
  2. Now don't tell me to RTFA ok??!?! by ChrisGilliard · · Score: 4, Funny

    EOM

    --
    No Sigs!
  3. Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by FatalChaos · · Score: 1

    Although i am glad that IBM is further supporting Open Source, I'm confused as to why they are tackling this particular aspect of OSS, because it could hurt their current revenue from data storage.

    1. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by cerelib · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, that is completely the wrong way to think about it. This is a way to be able to sell to customers whose entire infrastructure is from a competitor(EMC, Sun, Fujitsu) by being able to integrate or "virtualize" all of it so it works as a cohesive unit. It is all about virtualization of storage.

    2. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by Jason+Earl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      IBM can make this sort of a play because it has such a wide array of services and a support arm that is right in the trenches. So, for example, it can see that its UNIX gear is selling well, but a lot of IBM's UNIX customers are opting for EMC storage. IBM's service arm is happy to set that up for you, but its sales arm is not nearly as happy. So IBM gets to work at making storage a commodity and then providing service, support, and hardware. This is a win for IBM because it no longer needs EMC's help to sell an IBM solution. The profit that used to go into EMC's pocket now goes into IBM's pocket. The margins probably aren't as large as EMC used to get, but IBM doesn't have to share. IBM is more than happy to shrink the size of a market that it happens to compete in if it thinks that it can get a bigger slice of the pie or more service revenue. Interestingly enough, commoditizing a market usually causes it to grow because more people can afford the good or service. By creating a commodity IBM can often finagle both a bigger market *and* a larger slice of the pie.

      The best part is that this sort of strategy doesn't necessarily mean that IBM has to give up its current data storage products. With a little bit of differentiation IBM might still be able to sell "high end" storage gear that works well with their specialty OSes and hardware while offering a lower-cost standards-based solution that competes favorably with IBM's competitors. Just because IBM is pushing Linux certainly hasn't made its AIX business go away. Just like Linux gives IBM more ammunition when competing with Microsoft commodity storage gives IBM more ammunition when competing with EMC.

      This also goes to show how the folks at IBM are much smarter than the folks at Sun. Sun was facing the same problem as IBM in the storage arena (people wanted EMC's gear instead of Sun's gear). Sun is trying to remedy that through the purchase of another storage vendor (StorageTek) that is likewise having trouble competing. IBM, on the other hand, has opted to kick the bottom out of the market and see if it can't dominate over a commodity storage field.

    3. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by SwashbucklingCowboy · · Score: 1

      This isn't about virtualizing storage, this is about managing storage.

    4. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because they really do care.

    5. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by twiddlingbits · · Score: 1

      Insightful? How..this is a consortium of companies NOT IBM alone!! What they are trying to do is establish an "open standard" or some type of interoperability between storage vendors. If you own an IBM now and then decide your next gen SAN is EMC/Sun/etc. how to you get it all to work together is the concept. Making it work is a service the new vendor can provide. Services have higher margins than hardware.

      Far as I have seen StorageTek has done pretty good, EMC and IBM are the big dogs but ST held it's own. Tighter integration with Sun can't hurt just like IBM AIX boxes and mainframes work really well with IBM SHARCs. If you want the best kick ass performance in a SAN, you go to the niche players like Ingenia not IBM. I see this as a benefit to the end user and it will allow the companies that adopt it to open up more markets and those that don't will fade. FYI -- Storage was already a commodity and has been for about the last 5 years.

    6. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by superpulpsicle · · Score: 3, Informative

      I talk to a lot of companies deploying big servers & storage of all size all year round. Here is the current picture.

      EMC sym - They are only popular because they dominated the market in the 90s with many places already invested in them. Old school technology. Bloated as hell software, too many pieces.

      HDS - Tagma and lightning is the best technology in the market by a long shot period! However they are unfortunate in selling the best product in a shitty market.

      IBM - Shark has the ugliest hardware & software userbility there is. If you don't mind it, go for it.

      HP - If they didn't oem from HDS, they would have been toast.

      Sun - Storedge line started out confusing. Their marketing makes it even worse.

    7. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by Decker-Mage · · Score: 1

      Good analysis but I'd take it a bit farther. IBM is deriving an increasing amount of revenues from its service arm. If they can push for standards across the entire storage market this will be a huge boost for that arm of the company. Many companies will turn to IBM Services for their integration and support services rather than dealing with one or more vendor contracts. True, it will almost certainly cost them a bit of their hardware market sales but more and more IBM is winding that arm of the company down except for their extreme high margin products. All in all, a huge net plus for their bottom line.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
    8. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by twiddlingbits · · Score: 1

      Part of my group here buys mega storage boxes..they tell me the Engenia software (unity) makes any vendor solution better. We currently run the software over a lot of EMC boxes, and some SGI storage too. I've been told we will be moving away from EMC for several reasons, cost/performance being one, reliability being another. They are looking at Sun and Fujitsu for new purchases. From what I was told both those vendors have good performance and very nice price points.

    9. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by Pinback · · Score: 1

      EMC sym - Once EMC gets in your shop, they will monopolize as much of your time as possible so that you don't have time to compare them with anyone else.

      HDS - The most expensive storage on the market. Whether its worth the extra cost is up to you.

      IBM - Don't listen to the hillbilly. The usability of the "Shark" is fine. The fact that you don't pay extra for multipath drivers can be a big plus.

      HP - Don't buy from a company that doesn't make what they sell. Don't reward them for being middlemen. If you want Engenio/LSI or HDS, buy direct.

      Sun - Just pimpin CPU and whatever they can partner with. Aside from the STK purchase, they don't have much of a storage play.

    10. Re:Doesn't IBM sell data storage solutions? by Jason+Earl · · Score: 1

      My comment was even less insightful because Sun is part of this new storage team. I missed that. I saw Cisco and figured that IBM, Cisco, and a bunch of bit players got together to create a standards-based market that would allow all of them to gain share. The fact that Sun is on the team means that someone at Sun understands the importance of commoditization.

      Make no mistake though, the future of storage isn't "kick ass" performance but rather price/performance ratio, and the commodity guys are the ones that are likely to win that race. That's really the problem that I see with Sun. Improving StorageTek's integration with Solaris might help Sun sell more Solaris and more ST gear (possibly), but even the folks at Sun are having a hard time fighting the perception that Linux is the future. More than half of Sun's x64 servers ship with Linux. Sun would have been far better off to take the nearly $2 billion that it spent on StorageTek and simply go for a much less expensive commodity storage play.

  4. article is at by ChrisGilliard · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://fr.sys-con.com/read/145401.htm

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    No Sigs!
  5. no link in summary, here's one by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5912912.html

  6. Here's the link! :D by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=124913 2

    And the obligatory coral link.

    http://abcnews.go.com.nyud.net:8090/Business/wireS tory?id=1249132

    1. Re:Here's the link! :D by foniksonik · · Score: 1

      Hey Coral Cache sponsor... why did my browser ask to connect to ~10 different sites (though it looked like mostly edus) when I loaded that page? Just curious...

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  7. Haha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So many people don't read the articles anymore that the submitter must have figured, "Screw it, why post it anyway?"

    1. Re:Haha by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Funny
      So many people don't read the articles anymore that the submitter must have figured, "Screw it, why post it anyway?"

      Nah, he figured the next time the story is posted it would have links.
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. Entertainment for the Open Source community? by msbsod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Companies channel their "news". And who else could bring us better entertainment than ABC News, a Disney channel? The whole idea that IBM is pushing Linux is just too funny. IBM has no interest in Linux. IBM wants to sell their stuff. Nothing wrong with that, but why do we need IBM between the Open Source community and customers who already bought their equipment? It is the good old strategy of putting yourself between the brain and the money. All distributors of entertainment industry work that way. So, let's welcome IBM in their new role as entertainer, with Disney as partner.

    1. Re:Entertainment for the Open Source community? by Vellmont · · Score: 3, Insightful


      but why do we need IBM between the Open Source community and customers who already bought their equipment?

      Because when you've got a billion dollar company riding on open source software you need someone to help you NOW when you run into a problem, not try to call up the open source developer who may be on vacation, screwing his girlfriend, whatever. This is even true for the small companies out there, just more true for the larger ones.

      --
      AccountKiller
    2. Re:Entertainment for the Open Source community? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IBM sells support and software too. For the software, there needs to be something to run it on, if the client wants to run Linux, then they'll have to make sure they can run on Linux too. It's kind of tough to get reliable, good and swift on-site support.

  9. alleviating woes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    alleviating woes?

    Yep, some might say IBM has a lot of experience working with Deep Blues.

    1. Re:alleviating woes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This might work as long as it doesn't involve Deathstar HDDs. Thanks IBM, the leader in storage technolgoy.

  10. Meh by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Brought to you by Cisco, Sun, CA, Brocade, NetApp, McData, and Fujitsu. In other words, the same bunch of jerks who got you into this mess in the first place. Great. I'll expect something really useless like Ultra Wide iSCSI or some other bullshit, for only $999 per node, of course.

    1. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, sounds to me like "we're all sick of veritas' shit and ms-whoring. Let's build something nonproprietary in software so we can all sell snazzy hardware".

    2. Re:Meh by Vellmont · · Score: 1

      I don't think you understand. They're trying to develop software to make all those solutions inter-operate, not some new hardware they can all sell. They'll all gain in the end if it works.

      --
      AccountKiller
    3. Re:Meh by Diag · · Score: 1

      Despite what some news articles are saying, Sun is not involved as far as I know.

      "But just as notable is the list of companies that are missing, among them EMC, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Symantec."

      http://www.storagepipeline.com/172900196?cid=rssfe ed_pl_stp

      [disclaimer : I work for Sun (and have heard nothing about this until today)]

      --
      Serving Suggestion: Defrost
  11. I work for IBM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I work for IBM.
    So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.
    Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.
    But trust me.... You don't.
    I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you dont
    know what you are talking about.
    This is how bad info gets passed around.
    If you dont know about the topic....Don't make yourself sound like you do.
    Cuz some Slashdotters belive anything they hear.

    1. Re:I work for IBM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Cuz some Slashdotters belive anything they hear."

      Your opinion shouldn't be unheard for fear of misleading people who refuse to think from themselves - they can make up their own mind.

      I just had to moderate up two comments (hence the ac) that showed insightful/intersting opinion, that had been marked as 'funny' or 'troll' who let their own personal bias unfluence the way they censor other people's material. I've noticed that's been happening a lot on slashdot recently (happens to me quite a lot now - I'm almost wary of posting my opinion, because I know it's going to get moddded 'troll' for being anti-slashdot or flamebait, or the sarcasm won't be realised). But don't worry about it - hopefully meta moderation resolves it in the end.

    2. Re:I work for IBM. by DavidHOzAu · · Score: 2, Funny

      Cuz some Slashdotters belive anything they hear.
      Yes, and I work at IBM too. ;-)

    3. Re:I work for IBM. by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 1

      Go back to Fark, mmmkay?

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
    4. Re:I work for IBM. by Dmac1985 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for giving us the info instead of just berating us for using the only information we have to voice our opinions. It's nice to see someone informing the community instead of just starting flame wars based on his own undeserved yet heightened sense of self worth. Also, good call on posting anonymously; you don't want anyone knowing who you are in case they become jealous of your brilliance and decide to track you down and kill you. Worse yet they might become obsessed with your incredible intellect and decide to kidnap you. Very smart indeed.

    5. Re:I work for IBM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not funny on fark and it's not funny here

  12. Dear IBM, et al by christurkel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A good idea would be to encourage, nay, preinstall open source software on all computers you sell, including desktops.

    Yours truly, joe wantsomethingotherthanWindows

    --

    CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
    1. Re:Dear IBM, et al by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      IBM can't preload their desktops with Linux, they haven't sold desktops for over a year now.

      Because you didn't know this I'm guessing you're not a high-volume client of IBM, which makes your request even less persuasive.

  13. Google can take care of that for them by billstewart · · Score: 1
    Hey, this article was just after Google announced that All Your Database Are Belong To Them.

    (Does that make the IBM article a dupe, or have I pushed the Slashdot lame-joke envelope too far to get away with that? :-)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  14. Open Source data archive and retrieval tool by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Tape ARchive tool, reports IBM, will allow users to add and remove files from a data set, called a 'tarfile', via a well-documented API, which IBM wants OSS developers to leverage. This 'tarfile' can be created as a regular Unix or Wintel filesystem file, or directly written to tape or disk. This can be used to create any number of GUI and command line tools to provide low-level access to the data files contained within. A bonus to the extensible format used by IBM is that native Compress, GZ and BZ2 compression libraries can be used, when available on the system. A beta release of the utility set ALSO provides LZIP compression, previously only available as a Sourceforge patch to the existing OSS toolkit.

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    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Open Source data archive and retrieval tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait a minute. Isn't this +1 Funny? Not +2 Informative?

      Come on moderators, read the man pages for tar and gzip.

  15. I'm your boss at IBM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop browsing Slashdot at work, or you're fired.

  16. Phooey. Article Text With Links by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Kailash Nadh writes to tell us ABC News is reporting that IBM is teaming up with several other companies to form a group called Aperi. This group will attempt to "push the open source idea deeper into computing" and "free up the bottlenecks that can occur when a business has bought tape and disk storage systems from a variety of vendors." The partnership is to include companies like Cisco, Sun, Fujitsu, and several others.

  17. Of course, IBM wants to sell their stuff.. However by valdis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Something to keep in mind is that one of IBM's *biggest* divisions is now World Services, which is their consulting arm. Now, the consulting services people make the same amount (more or less) no matter if they do the work on Linux or AIX.

    The difference is that IBM can either have 5,000 people doing AIX support, or it can have 100 or so people doing Linux support and development, and let the open source community provide the other 4,900 people.

    Which do you think looks better on the balance sheet?

  18. Umm.. IBM doesn't make desktops anymore... by valdis · · Score: 1

    Seems they sold that off a while ago to a bunch called Levono....

  19. Re:Phooey. Article Text With Links by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The mysterious future thanks you.

  20. Deep by wombatmobile · · Score: 2, Funny

    This group will attempt to "push the open source idea deeper into computing"

    How much deeper can they go?

  21. so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    first off, i work at ibm as well, however:

    1. this posting was created before there were very many comments at all - what are you complaining about? that people are wondering where the link to the article is?

    2. although ibm has generally low recruiting standards (they don't pay well), your grammer is even worse than that which encounter on a daily basis

    3. 300,000 people work at ibm. Like I would value your trolling insights more than reasonable speculation from the slashdot community.

    most likely you're just cutting & pasting the same neanderthal comment in any posting you see from ibm - out of some weird and misguided pride in working at ibm.

    1. Re:so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When trying to make someone look bad because of their grammar, please at least spell the word grammar correctly!

    2. Re:so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      most likely you're just cutting & pasting the same neanderthal comment in any posting you see from ibm - out of some weird and misguided pride in working at ibm.

      That whooshing sound is satire going over your head.

    3. Re:so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's a word for 'really unfunny satire'?

  22. Re:Of course, IBM wants to sell their stuff.. Howe by msbsod · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Having 5,000 people doing AIX support was much better for IBM than having 100 people busy with Linux support, because all 5,000 people were paid by the customers. If they could IBM would continue this way. But AIX is hardly an expanding market. So they change their business model and put themselves between the customers and the Open Source community. HP and Sun do the same.

  23. Thank you :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You'll make an excellent apologist, telling us that we don't know anything about something.

    However, there's a little tiny detail... nothing important, you just you didn't provide any factual info to tell us what we SHOULD know about.

    But hey, this is slashdot, right? :)

  24. How exactly do they intend to "push OSS deeper"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, maybe they're going to make hardware manufacturers actually release specs so we don't get stuck with crippled or non-existent support.

  25. World Services? by Apponaug · · Score: 1

    Is that like their Global Services division?? ;)

    1. Re:World Services? by valdis · · Score: 1

      D'Oh!

      Yes, Global Services. That will teach me to post while in a rush to get out the door. ;)

  26. With IBM, it will be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    More like a team to alleviate your money storage woes..

  27. Re:Of course, IBM wants to sell their stuff.. Howe by Amiga+Trombone · · Score: 1

    But AIX is hardly an expanding market.

    It's not?

  28. That's what I got out of the title too... by mtec · · Score: 1

    Oh yeah baby... alleviate my storage woes! Years and years of stored... nasty... data.

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  29. SMI-S by furry_wookie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We have this already..it's called the SNIA SMI... have you not heard of it?

    http://www.snia.org/smi/home ..no thanks IBM.

    --
    -- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
    1. Re:SMI-S by sirwired · · Score: 1

      SMI-S is a merely a protocol. This effort looks like it is a proposed platform. Actual, running, useful, code, not just a spec for code that may or may not be written at some time in the future.

      SirWired

  30. Diversifying under the table? by aztektum · · Score: 1

    I didn't realize Sun and Cisco sold Windows PCs?

    --
    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
  31. Re:Of course, IBM wants to sell their stuff.. Howe by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 1
    Keep in mind that much of the growth in the pSeries is due to Linux as well, since a lot of customers put Linux on those machines.

    IBM has a very good pitch; they can get you really nice hardware running Linux along with their support, and help migrate you up to AIX and big iron if you need it.

    --
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