IBM Storage FlashSystem Portfolio

Technical Specifications

The high-speed IBM FlashSystem primary data storage platform provides enterprise-class data solutions for businesses, large and small. The platform offers built-in AI and interoperability while enabling a fast response to cyber threats and data breaches. From hybrid storage to performant nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) all-flash arrays and both on-premises and cloud-based workloads, IBM FlashSystem meets even the most demanding data storage requirements.

With the introduction of the FlashSystem grid architecture, organizations can deploy a scalable, highly available data plane for monitoring and managing their storage architecture. Allowing them to reduce data silos and spend less time on storage management by easily automating and non-disruptively moving data between multiple connected storage systems. This provides data mobility to different data centers regionally and globally while rebalancing as workloads grow and regularly refreshing systems to keep your infrastructure consistently up to date. Resulting in a data storage architecture that guarantees your data and applications are always available, performant, and have the capacity needed to meet your organization's long-term storage objectives while freeing up people and capital to focus on new strategic projects. The FlashSystem grid can contain a mix of different supported systems and configurations for added versatility.

These specifications assume the FlashSystem grid contains eight devices with the same configuration:

The IBM FlashSystem primary data storage platform is comprised of:

• FlashSystem 5015 is an affordable and easy-to-use solution with powerful scale-up features, offering various storage options and using IBM Storage Virtualize features.

• FlashSystem 5045 provides greater functionality, including powerful encryption capabilities, data reduction pools with compression, deduplication, thin provisioning, and the ability to cluster for scale-up and scale-out

• FlashSystem C200 is a high-capacity and energy-efficient storage solution designed for applications that don’t require ultra-low latency but can benefit from significant performance improvements over disk solutions and considerable operating cost savings like media streaming, archives, backups, and other data repositories. It offers the lowest all-flash TCO while featuring the same enterprise-grade security and availability services as the rest of the FlashSystem family, making it the perfect target for disaster recovery copies.

• FlashSystem 5300 is an entry-level NVMe all-flash solution that provides exceptional cybersecurity features, impressive density, and outstanding performance. Designed for customers with small, mixed workloads demanding a combination of performance, scalability, and security features.

• FlashSystem 7300 is a cost-effective storage solution that supports all the advanced capabilities of IBM FlashSystems and provides superior balance of performance, capacity, and connectivity options for the modern enterprise: simple, smart, and secure—delivering incredible performance.

• FlashSystem 9500 is the optimal solution for large, mixed, and consolidated workloads, delivering extreme speed and simplicity for the most demanding enterprise workloads. 

Refer to individual product sales manuals for drive availability under each product.

*46TB raw FCM is only available in FlashSystem C200 and it is the only drive supported on FlashSystem C200.

IBM Storage Virtualize

• Designed for "six nines" (99.9999%) data availability with over 20 years of market presence.
• Distributed RAIDs 1, 5, and 6 provide the flexibility to choose the level of data protection required. 
• Virtualization of internal storage enables rapid, flexible provisioning and simple configuration changes.
• Thin provisioning optimizes efficiency by allocating disk storage space in a flexible manner among multiple users based on the minimum space required by each user at any given time. With thin provisioning, applications consume only the space they are actually using, not the total space that has been allocated to them. 
• Data reduction pools increase existing infrastructure capacity utilization by leveraging the following efficiency functions:
• Automatically deallocate and reclaim capacity of thin-provisioned volumes containing deleted data and, for the first time, enable this reclaimed capacity to be reused by other volumes.
• Block deduplication for increased efficiency of storage usage by utilizing pointers in duplicate blocks rather than keeping multiple copies.
• Compression improves efficiency by storing more active primary data in the same physical disk space.
• Dynamic migration delivers efficiency and business value through a nondisruptive migration function. 
• Policy-based snapshots and replication provide simplified configuration and management for storage replication by applying a policy to a set of volumes in a volume group.
• The graphic user interface delivers intuitive data management and is designed with point-and-click system management capabilities

Refer to individual product documentation for software feature availability under each product. 

IBM Storage Expert Care

Additionally, with the provision of your system’s Warranty or Expert Care Support contract, an endurance guarantee is extended to all your Flash Control Modules (FCMs). IBM assures the replacement of any failed FCM drive, irrespective of the workload type or the number of writes; this reflects the high level of confidence IBM holds in the reliability of FlashCore Modules.

IBM FlashSystem Family at a glance

IBM FlashCore Module

IBM SAN Volume Controller at a glance

For more information

Visit our solutions page to learn more about the FlashSystem family of data systems, or contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner. If you need to be connected, fill out this form to schedule a consult with an IBM storage expert.

#Featured-area-2
#Highlights
#Highlights-home