IBM Delivers Breakthrough Storage Capability on Blade Computing Solution Designed for the Office

IBM is adding industry-first shared storage to the exceptional features of its BladeCenter S system, bringing enterprise-class storage capabilities to smaller firms and branch offices that lack the IT staff and budgets to manage expanding volumes of business information. With this innovative new approach, IBM is cutting the cost of shared storage technology by 30 to 40 percent and -- supported by new, complementary features -- making it easier to set up and own.

First launched in 2007, BladeCenter S is specially designed to simplify the management of technology needed to run a business -- from servers, to phone systems and business applications -- in a single system. BladeCenter S can help reduce the 25 to 45 servers used by an average mid-size company by up to 80 percent. With the addition of shared storage, a requirement for many business applications including IBM Lotus Notes, Microsoft Clustering Services, Oracle, SAP and VMware VMotion, BladeCenter S can now support nearly any business need.

BladeCenter S has demonstrated market success with over 4,000 retail stores planning to run operations on the system by the holiday season and 130 Business Partner centers featuring BladeCenter S, including more than 80 primarily dedicated to its promotion.

In addition to delivering breakthrough shared storage, or Storage Area Network (SAN) technology, IBM is also the only blade server vendor in the industry to offer rapidly growing businesses access to up nine terabytes of shared storage, equivalent to that needed to store the print collections of the U.S. Library of Congress and six times the storage capacity of competitive blade offerings for small and medium-sized customers and branch offices.

Like many small and medium businesses, companies with branch offices and stores such as retailers or healthcare networks seldom have data centers in which to store and manage the technology they need to run business operations. With limited IT resources on-site, these companies face unique technology requirements and require integrated solutions that simplify IT at the office.

Provided by IBM