IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has shipped the 25,000th high-end disk storage solution to the University of Pittsburgh. The new disk storage solution is part of a hardware, software and virtualization storage infrastructure to improve the learning environment for faculty and staff, enable the university to lower its total cost of ownership, improve data center energy efficiency and respond rapidly to storage infrastructure demands.
The University of Pittsburgh has more than 33,000 full- and part-time students along with more than 12,000 faculty and staff at its five western Pennsylvania campuses. In the past, the technology needs of the university -- student records, e-mail, archives, school records, employee information and mission critical applications -- resided on disparate storage solutions that were expanding beyond the capacity of the current infrastructure. The new infrastructure helps support the learning process by making the access to information quicker, richer, more inclusive and critically engaging.
The university needed to create an enterprise storage solution that would give it three key benefits:
- A new storage infrastructure with the capacity to grow with the University of Pittsburgh as needed;
- Improved system reliability with reduced downtime, and availability 24/7/365; and
- A significantly more manageable storage solution that could lower costs and provide better system efficiency through virtualization.
"The University of Pittsburgh supports large enterprise systems, and the number and complexity of new systems continue to grow. To effectively manage these systems it was necessary to identify an enterprise storage solution that would leverage our existing investments in storage, make allocation of storage flexible and responsive to project needs, provide centralized management, and offer the reliability and stability we require. The integrated IBM storage solution met these requirements," said Jinx Walton, Director of Computing Services and Systems Development at the University of Pittsburgh.
The University of Pittsburgh's total solution will consist of the IBM SAN Volume Controller storage virtualization solution spread across two IBM System Storage DS8300 systems utilizing CISCO SAN switches, which will be used for Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage needs. An IBM System Storage DS4800 will be used for Tier 3 and back-up, while IBM Tivoli Productivity Center (TPC) will manage the entire environment. More than 325 terabytes of data will be stored on the new infrastructure -- the equivalent of storing more than 162 billion pages of text.
These high-end DS8000 hardware disk storage systems are the 25,000th systems shipped from IBM's factories, dating back eight years to when the first Enterprise Storage System was shipped in 1999.
"For the first time, IBM's education experts and the University of Pittsburgh are working together and creating a highly integrated storage solution that will help its students, staff, and faculty access information quickly," said Barry Rudolph, Vice President, IBM System Storage. "It's a milestone in the history of the IBM corporation to reach 25,000 high-end disk storage solutions shipped, and truly shows that our customers continue to demand IBM for their storage needs. Our goal here is to deliver a storage infrastructure that will be reliable, cost efficient, and respond rapidly to the University of Pittsburgh's needs and save it time, resources, energy and money."
IBM Global Technology Services will be providing over 300 hours of maintenance, implementation, and training services, and IBM Global Financing leasing will be used to complete the deal. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
According to IDC, IBM was the number one supplier of storage hardware from a combined worldwide revenue disk and tape perspective in 2006 (1). The new University of Pittsburgh storage solution is replacing an existing non-IBM storage solution and is slated to go live this year.
The University of Pittsburgh has more than 33,000 full- and part-time students along with more than 12,000 faculty and staff at its five western Pennsylvania campuses. In the past, the technology needs of the university -- student records, e-mail, archives, school records, employee information and mission critical applications -- resided on disparate storage solutions that were expanding beyond the capacity of the current infrastructure. The new infrastructure helps support the learning process by making the access to information quicker, richer, more inclusive and critically engaging.
The university needed to create an enterprise storage solution that would give it three key benefits:
- A new storage infrastructure with the capacity to grow with the University of Pittsburgh as needed;
- Improved system reliability with reduced downtime, and availability 24/7/365; and
- A significantly more manageable storage solution that could lower costs and provide better system efficiency through virtualization.
"The University of Pittsburgh supports large enterprise systems, and the number and complexity of new systems continue to grow. To effectively manage these systems it was necessary to identify an enterprise storage solution that would leverage our existing investments in storage, make allocation of storage flexible and responsive to project needs, provide centralized management, and offer the reliability and stability we require. The integrated IBM storage solution met these requirements," said Jinx Walton, Director of Computing Services and Systems Development at the University of Pittsburgh.
The University of Pittsburgh's total solution will consist of the IBM SAN Volume Controller storage virtualization solution spread across two IBM System Storage DS8300 systems utilizing CISCO SAN switches, which will be used for Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage needs. An IBM System Storage DS4800 will be used for Tier 3 and back-up, while IBM Tivoli Productivity Center (TPC) will manage the entire environment. More than 325 terabytes of data will be stored on the new infrastructure -- the equivalent of storing more than 162 billion pages of text.
These high-end DS8000 hardware disk storage systems are the 25,000th systems shipped from IBM's factories, dating back eight years to when the first Enterprise Storage System was shipped in 1999.
"For the first time, IBM's education experts and the University of Pittsburgh are working together and creating a highly integrated storage solution that will help its students, staff, and faculty access information quickly," said Barry Rudolph, Vice President, IBM System Storage. "It's a milestone in the history of the IBM corporation to reach 25,000 high-end disk storage solutions shipped, and truly shows that our customers continue to demand IBM for their storage needs. Our goal here is to deliver a storage infrastructure that will be reliable, cost efficient, and respond rapidly to the University of Pittsburgh's needs and save it time, resources, energy and money."
IBM Global Technology Services will be providing over 300 hours of maintenance, implementation, and training services, and IBM Global Financing leasing will be used to complete the deal. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
According to IDC, IBM was the number one supplier of storage hardware from a combined worldwide revenue disk and tape perspective in 2006 (1). The new University of Pittsburgh storage solution is replacing an existing non-IBM storage solution and is slated to go live this year.
