IBM Cloud Object Storage Available With Cisco UCS Servers

IBM Cloud Object Storage is available with Cisco UCS servers as a Cisco Validated Design

At a glance
IBM Cloud Object Storage System V3.10.0 Cisco Enabled delivers the following features:

Scalability: Scale up to support more than an EB of storage capacity in a single object storage system and namespace.
Security: Protect mission-critical data with zero-touch encryption and other built-in robust security capabilities.
Availability: Ensure your data is always available, regardless of planned or unplanned outages.
Efficiency: Manage and monitor the storage system and underlying hardware with a single pane of glass management GUI. A wide range of management APIs can be used to integrate with external management or monitoring systems.
Economics: Reduce raw storage capacity requirements and increase tolerance of drive- and server-level failures compared to traditional storage systems that use RAID and replication to protect data against these failures. This can help to reduce costs associated with hardware, power, space, and operational staffing requirements.

Overview
IBM Cloud Object Storage System V3.10.0 Cisco Enabled delivers the ability to create a private or hybrid cloud storage solution based on Cisco UCS servers and IBM Cloud Object Storage. Customers can now utilize Cisco UCS servers to create a modern storage architecture for active archive and backup data and for legacy or cloud native applications. This VersaStack solution is a Cisco Validated design (CVD) based on Cisco S3260 and C220 UCS servers and IBM Cloud Object Storage software. Customers gain the advantages of a software-defined but hardware-aware solution that provides the flexibility, scalability, and simplicity required for expanding storage requirements. This particular release will enable IBM COS to only be run on these particular Cisco Servers in any COS Network, and does not allow the intermixing of any other third-party or IBM -branded servers in the same network.

As clients move to transform their business with cloud, mobile IoT, analytics, social, and cognitive, they run into a wall of content that is particularly unstructured and grows exponentially. The growth of content is a challenge in a world of tight budgets, but this content can also have significant value to an enterprise. This content has a diverse set of requirements around where and how it is stored, managed, and accessed. Some content has to be stored inside of your data center, while other content can take advantage of the elastic characteristics of cloud. IBM Cloud Object Storage is a hybrid cloud object storage offering that can be deployed on premises as a system, as a service on the IBM cloud, or a combination of the two. This offering enables clients to store data at the petabyte and exabyte level, and encrypts, expands, slices, and disperses data to further protect your information effectively and efficiently.

For clients who require an object storage solution, Cloud Object Storage System is a solution. It can help solve petabyte-to-exabyte storage challenges for businesses worldwide. Instead of creating multiple copies of client data and storing them in different systems, it allows to disperse, store, and retrieve a single instance of data in a private storage cloud. The data is protected against hardware component failures by erasure coding in the Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA), rather than by storage of multiple copies.

Cloud Object Storage System is designed to scale at a lower cost and with less complexity than traditional services, and includes enterprise-grade security capabilities up to 99.9999999999999% reliability.

Cloud Object Storage System addresses many of the challenges that can come with the following storage use cases:

Object Storage-as-a-Service: Deliver new levels of storage capacity and availability for clients with enterprise-grade security capabilities.
Active archive: Keep content accessible with a scalable and reliable long-term data archive, protected by enterprise-grade security capabilities.
Backup repository: When cost optimization is the priority over RTOs, an easy, scalable, and continuous backup repository is available for dependable recovery.
Content repository: Entrust business-critical data to a reliable and scalable storage platform.
Enterprise collaboration: Storage for all of your data needs in a single system and a single namespace with global access using RESTful interfaces can facilitate enterprise collaboration.

In November, 2015, IBM acquired Cleversafe, Inc, developer and manufacturer of object-based storage software and appliances. With this acquisition, it incorporated the object storage technologies of Cleversafe into the IBM portfolio of solutions to enhance on-premise and IBM Cloud service storage options for clients and service providers with large-scale active archives and unstructured data content stores.

Key prerequisites: Cloud Object Storage System V3.10.0 Cisco Enabled can only be deployed on certified Cisco hardware servers in a single site or across multiple, geographically dispersed locations, and connected by using public or private networks. This release does not allow the intermixing of any other third-party or IBM -branded servers in the same dsNet. Certified Cisco hardware servers are only available through Cisco or Cisco business partners.

Planned availability date: June 20, 2017 (electronic)