IBM's Flash Storage Play: Inside Big Blue's Move

By Darryl K. Taft  |  Posted 2013-04-15


New York—IBM is aiming to drive flash technology further into the enterprise to help organizations better tackle the mounting challenges of big data and beyond. At an April 11 launch event here, IBM announced its new FlashSystem line of flash-based storage appliances and pledged to funnel $1 billion into research and development in flash technology. The investment will go to R&D for designing, creating and integrating new flash solutions into IBM's expanding portfolio of servers, storage systems and middleware. "We're announcing three things," said Ed Walsh, vice president of storage systems marketing and strategy at IBM. "We're announcing a $1 billion investment in software and systems across IBM, 12 new Centers of Competency around flash and a new line of products called IBM FlashSystem." Steve Mills, IBM's senior vice president and group executive for software and systems added, "We're at an important tipping point in the IT industry. There's no question that this technology can improve performance, but even more important are aspects of cost reduction." Here, eWEEK examines some of the factors going into IBM's launch of FlashSystem technologies.

IBM FlashSystem Solutions

Here are details on the IBM FlashSystem 820 and the SAN Volume Controller with FlashSystem 820.