Read Books Online and Download eBooks, EPub, PDF, Mobi, Kindle, Text Full Free.
Ibm Midrange Storage System Implementation And Best Practices Guide
Download Ibm Midrange Storage System Implementation And Best Practices Guide full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Ibm Midrange Storage System Implementation And Best Practices Guide ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!
Book Synopsis IBM Midrange System Storage Implementation and Best Practices Guide by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM Midrange System Storage Implementation and Best Practices Guide written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication represents a compilation of best practices for deploying and configuring IBM Midrange System StorageTM servers, which include the DS4000® and the DS5000 family of products. This book is intended for IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, and customers responsible for the planning, deployment, and maintenance of the IBM Midrange System Storage family of products. We realize that setting up DS4000 and DS5000 Storage Servers can be a complex task. There is no single configuration that will be satisfactory for every application or situation. First, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding the hardware in a Storage Area Network. Then we offer our guidelines, hints, and tips for the physical installation, cabling, and zoning, using the Storage Manager setup tasks. After that, we turn our attention to the performance and tuning of various components and features, including numerous guidelines. We look at performance implications for various application products such as DB2®, Oracle, Tivoli® Storage Manager, Microsoft® SQL server, and in particular, Microsoft Exchange with IBM Midrange System Storage servers. Then we review the various tools available to simulate workloads and to measure, collect, and analyze performance data. We also consider the AIX® environment, including High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMPTM) and General Parallel File System (GPFSTM). Finally, we provide a quick guide to the storage server installation and configuration using best practices. This edition of the book also includes guidelines for managing and using the DS4000 and DS5000 with the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC).
Book Synopsis IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Implementation and Best Practices Guide by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Implementation and Best Practices Guide written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication represents a compilation of best practices for deploying and configuring the IBM System Storage® DS5000 Series family of products. This book is intended for IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, and customers responsible for the planning, deployment, and maintenance of the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series family of products. We realize that setting up DS5000 Storage Servers can be a complex task. There is no single configuration that will be satisfactory for every application or situation. First, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding the hardware in a Storage Area Network. Then, we offer our guidelines, hints, and tips for the physical installation, cabling, and zoning, using the Storage Manager setup tasks. Next, we provide a quick guide to help you install and configure the DS5000 using best practices. After that, we turn our attention to the performance and tuning of various components and features, including numerous guidelines. We look at performance implications for various application products such as IBM DB2®, Oracle, IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager, Microsoft SQL server, and in particular, Microsoft Exchange server. Then we review the various tools available to simulate workloads and to measure, collect, and analyze performance data. We also consider the IBM AIX® environment, including IBM High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMPTM) and IBM General Parallel File System (GPFSTM). This edition of the book also includes guidelines for managing and using the DS5000 with the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM Storwize® V7000.
Book Synopsis SAN Boot Implementation and Best Practices Guide for IBM System Storage by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book SAN Boot Implementation and Best Practices Guide for IBM System Storage written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2012-09-30 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Booting servers from a storage area network (SAN) is being used increasingly in complex data center environments today, due to its significant benefits over the traditional method of booting from local disks. SAN Boot enables organizations to maximize consolidation of their IT resources, minimize their equipment costs, and realize the considerable management benefits of centralizing the boot process. In SAN Boot, you can deploy diskless servers in an environment where the boot disk is located on (often RAID-capable) storage connected to the SAN. The server (initiator) communicates with the storage device (target) through the SAN using the Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA). The system downtime is greatly minimized in case a critical component such as a processor, memory, or host bus adapter fails and needs to be replaced. The system administrator needs to swap only the hardware and reconfigure the HBA's BIOS, switch zoning, and host-port definitions on the storage server. The system image still exists on the logical drive, therefore the server is fully operational after the hardware swap and configuration change is completed. This IBM® Redbooks® publication can help you with the SAN Boot implementation. We present various SAN Boot scenarios using IBM System Storage® products that include DS5000, DS8000®, XIV®, and SVC. The operating systems that are covered include Windows 2008, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, and VMware.
Book Synopsis IBM System Storage DS3500 Introduction and Implementation Guide by : IBM Redbooks
Download or read book IBM System Storage DS3500 Introduction and Implementation Guide written by IBM Redbooks and published by . This book was released on 2011-05-20 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis VMware Implementation with IBM System Storage DS5000 by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book VMware Implementation with IBM System Storage DS5000 written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we compiled best practices for planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining IBM Midrange Storage Solutions. In this publication, we use IBM System Storage® DS5000 storage subsystem for the implementation procedures, and the same procedures can be used for implementations with DCS3700 or DS3500 storage subsystems. We also compiled configurations for a VMware ESX and VMware ESXi Server host environment. Setting up an IBM Midrange Storage Subsystem is a challenging task. Our principal objective in this book is to provide you with a sufficient overview to effectively enable storage area network (SAN) storage and VMware. There is no single configuration that is satisfactory for every application or situation. However, the effectiveness of the VMware implementation is enabled by careful planning and consideration. Although the compilation of this publication is derived from an actual setup and verification, we did not stress test or test for all possible use cases that are used in a limited configuration assessment. Because of the highly customizable nature of a VMware ESXi host environment, you must consider your specific environment and equipment to achieve optimal performance from an IBM Midrange Storage Subsystem. When you are weighing the recommendations in this publication, you must start with the first principles of input/output (I/O) performance tuning. Each environment is unique and the correct settings that are used depend on the specific goals, configurations, and demands for the specific environment. This publication is intended for technical professionals who want to deploy VMware ESXi and VMware ESX Servers with IBM Midrange Storage Subsystems.
Book Synopsis IBM Midrange System Storage Hardware Guide by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM Midrange System Storage Hardware Guide written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2010-03-16 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication consolidates, in one document, detailed descriptions of the hardware configurations and options offered as part of the IBM Midrange System StorageTM servers, which include the IBM System Storage DS4000® and DS5000 families of products. This edition covers updates and additional functions available with the IBM System Storage DS® Storage Manager Version 10.60 (firmware level 7.60). This book presents the concepts and functions used in planning and managing the storage servers, such as multipathing and path failover. The book offers a step-by-step guide to using the Storage Manager to create arrays, logical drives, and other basic (as well as advanced) management tasks. This publication also contains practical information about diagnostics and troubleshooting, and includes practical examples of how to use scripts and the command-line interface. This publication is intended for customers, IBM Business Partners, and IBM technical professionals who want to learn more about the capabilities and advanced functions of the DS4000 series of storage servers with Storage Manager Software V10.60. It also targets those who have a DS4000 and DS5000 storage subsystem and need detailed advice about how to configure it.
Book Synopsis IBM FlashSystem 5200 Product Guide by : Aldo Araujo Fonseca
Download or read book IBM FlashSystem 5200 Product Guide written by Aldo Araujo Fonseca and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2022-07-22 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide publication describes the IBM FlashSystem® 5200 solution, which is a next-generation IBM FlashSystem control enclosure. It is an NVMe end-to-end platform that is targeted at the entry and midrange market and delivers the full capabilities of IBM FlashCore® technology. It also provides a rich set of software-defined storage (SDS) features that are delivered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize, including the following features: Data reduction and deduplication Dynamic tiering Thin provisioning Snapshots Cloning Replication Data copy services Transparent Cloud Tiering IBM HyperSwap® including 3-site replication for high availability (HA) Scale-out and scale-up configurations further enhance capacity and throughput for better availability. The IBM FlashSystem 5200 is a high-performance storage solution that is based on a revolutionary 1U form factor. It consists of 12 NVMe Flash Devices in a 1U storage enclosure drawer with full redundant canister components and no single point of failure. It is designed for businesses of all sizes, including small, remote, branch offices and regional clients. It is a smarter, self-optimizing solution that requires less management, which enables organizations to overcome their storage challenges. Flash has come of age and price point reductions mean that lower parts of the storage market are seeing the value of moving over to flash and NVMe--based solutions. The IBM FlashSystem 5200 advances this transition by providing incredibly dense tiers of flash in a more affordable package. With the benefit of IBM FlashCore Module compression and new QLC flash-based technology becoming available, a compelling argument exists to move away from Nearline SAS storage and on to NVMe. With the release of IBM FlashSystem 5200 Software V8.4, extra functions and features are available, including support for new Distributed RAID1 (DRAID1) features, GUI enhancements, Redirect-on-write for Data Reduction Pool (DRP) snapshots, and 3-site replication capabilities. This book is aimed at pre-sales and post-sales technical support and marketing and storage administrators.
Book Synopsis IBM System Storage TS7600 with ProtecTIER Version 3.3 by : Karen Orlando
Download or read book IBM System Storage TS7600 with ProtecTIER Version 3.3 written by Karen Orlando and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2014-02-07 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the IBM solution for data deduplication, the IBM System Storage® TS7650G IBM ProtecTIER® Deduplication Gateway, and the IBM TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance Express. This solution consists of the IBM System Storage ProtecTIER Enterprise Edition V3.3 software and the IBM System Storage TS7600 family of products. They are designed to address the disk-based data protection needs of enterprise data centers. We describe the components that make up IBM System Storage TS7600 with ProtecTIER and provide extensive planning and sizing guidance that enables you to determine your requirements and the correct configuration for your environment. We then guide you through the basic setup steps on the system and on the host. We also describe all operational tasks that are required during normal day-to-day operation or when upgrading your TS7600 products. All available models of the ProtecTIER deduplication system can now be ordered in a configuration to operate in one of the following modes for which we provide setup, configuration and usage guidelines for your business needs: The Virtual Tape Library (VTL) interface is the foundation of ProtecTIER and emulates traditional automated tape libraries. The Symantec NetBackup OpenStorage (OST) API can be integrated with Symantec NetBackup to provide backup-to-disk without having to emulate traditional tape libraries. The newly available File System Interface (FSI) supports Common Internet File System (CIFS) and Network File System (NFS) as a backup target. This publication is intended for system programmers, storage administrators, hardware and software planners, and other IT personnel that are involved in planning, implementing, and the use of the IBM deduplication solution. It also is intended for anyone seeking detailed technical information about the IBM System Storage TS7600 with ProtecTIER.
Book Synopsis IBM Information Infrastructure Solutions Handbook by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM Information Infrastructure Solutions Handbook written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2010-07-11 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An information infrastructure is comprised of software, servers, storage, and networks, integrated and optimized to deliver timely, secure, and trusted information throughout the organization and to its clients and partners. With the explosive growth in data and information—coupled with demands for projects with rapid ROI—IT infrastructures and storage administrators are reaching a breaking point. IBM® can help with the changes needed to manage information availability, security, and regulatory and compliance requirements on a tighter budget. And because the health of any business often depends on its ability to take advantage of information in real time, a sound, intelligent information infrastructure becomes critical to supporting new growth initiatives. IBM offers an innovative approach to help you manage information growth more effectively and mitigate risks with a dynamic infrastructure that efficiently and securely stores and protects information, and optimizes information access. You can control, protect, manage, and gain new intelligence from your information with the IBM leading-edge Information Infrastructure products, services and integrated solutions, supported by world-class expertise and access to top experts from around the world. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides an overview of the IBM Information Infrastructure solutions that are designed to help you manage the information explosion and address challenges of information compliance, availability, retention, and security. This will lead your company toward improved productivity, service delivery, and reduced risk, while streamlining costs.
Book Synopsis IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Hardware Guide by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Hardware Guide written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2013-01-10 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication consolidates, in one document, detailed descriptions of the hardware configurations and options offered as part of the IBM System Storage DS5000 families of products. This edition covers updates and additional functions available with the IBM System Storage DS® Storage Manager Version 10.77 (firmware level 7.77). This book presents the concepts and functions used in planning and managing the storage servers, such as multipathing and path failover. The book offers a step-by-step guide to using the Storage Manager to create arrays, logical drives, and other basic (as well as advanced) management tasks. This publication also contains practical information about diagnostics and troubleshooting, and includes practical examples of how to use scripts and the command-line interface. This publication is intended for customers, IBM Business Partners, and IBM technical professionals who want to learn more about the capabilities and advanced functions of the DS5000 series of storage servers with Storage Manager Software V10.77. It also targets those who have a DS5000 storage subsystem and need detailed advice about how to configure it. This book is designed specifically to address the hardware features and configuration of the IBM System Storage DS5000 family and can be used in conjunction with the following IBM Redbooks publications: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-8024 IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Copy Services Guide, SG24-7822
Book Synopsis IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Copy Services Guide by : Sangam Racherla
Download or read book IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Copy Services Guide written by Sangam Racherla and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2011-02-28 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this IBM® Redbooks® publication is to provide customers with guidance and recommendations for how and when to use the IBM System Storage® Copy Services premium features. The topics discussed in this publication apply to the IBM System Storage DS® models DS3000, DS4000®, and DS5000 running the firmware v7.70, and IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager v10.70. Customers in today's IT world are finding a major need to ensure a good archive of their data and a requirement to create these archives with minimal interruptions. The IBM Midrange System Storage helps to fulfill these requirements by offering three copy services premium features: IBM FlashCopy® VolumeCopy Enhanced Remote Mirroring (ERM) This publication specifically addresses the copy services premium features and can be used in conjunction with the following IBM DS System Storage books: IBM System Storage DS4000 and Storage Manager V10.30, SG24-7010 IBM System Storage DS3000: Introduction and Implementation Guide, SG24-7065 IBM System Storage DS3500: Introduction and Implementation Guide, SG24-7914 IBM Midrange System Storage Hardware Guide, SG24-7676 IBM Midrange System Storage Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-6363
Book Synopsis Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Disk System by : Jure Arzensek
Download or read book Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Disk System written by Jure Arzensek and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2014-12-19 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces the IBM Storwize® V7000 Unified Disk System, a virtualized storage system that consolidates block and file workloads into a single storage system. Advantages include simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. It also offers improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in solid-state drive optimization, thin provisioning, IBM Real-time CompressionTM, and nondisruptive migration of data from existing storage. The system can virtualize and reuse existing disk systems, which offers a greater potential return on investment. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following Redbooks publications to get the most from this book: Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3, SG24-7938 Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V6.3, SG24-7933 Real-time Compression in SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000, REDP-4859 SONAS Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-7962 SONAS Concepts, Architecture, and Planning Guide, SG24-7963
Book Synopsis Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.4 by : Corne Lottering
Download or read book Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.4 written by Corne Lottering and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2021-08-06 with total page 946 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM FlashSystem® solution that is powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.4. This innovative storage offering delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies that are typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, which raises the standard for storage efficiency in midrange disk systems. This cutting-edge storage system extends the comprehensive storage portfolio from IBM and can help change the way organizations address the ongoing information explosion. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the features and functions of an IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.4 system through several examples. This book is aimed at pre-sales and post-sales technical support and marketing and storage administrators. It helps you understand the architecture, how to implement it, and how to take advantage of its industry-leading functions and features.
Book Synopsis IBM ProtecTIER Implementation and Best Practices Guide by : Karen Orlando
Download or read book IBM ProtecTIER Implementation and Best Practices Guide written by Karen Orlando and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides best practice guidance for planning, installing, configuring, and employing the IBM TS7600 ProtecTIER® family of products. It provides the latest best practices for the practical application of ProtecTIER Software Version 3.4. This latest release introduces the new ProtecTIER Enterprise Edition TS7650G DD6 model high performance server. This book also includes information about the revolutionary and patented IBM HyperFactor® deduplication engine, along with other data storage efficiency techniques, such as compression and defragmentation. The IBM System Storage® TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway and the IBM System Storage TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance Express are disk-based data storage systems: The Virtual Tape Library (VTL) interface is the foundation of ProtecTIER and emulates traditional automated tape libraries. For your existing ProtecTIER solution, this guide provides best practices and suggestions to boost the performance and the effectiveness of data deduplication with regards to your application platforms for your VTL and FSI (systems prior to version 3.4). When you build a ProtecTIER data deduplication environment, this guide can help IT architects and solution designers plan for the best option and scenario for data deduplication for their environments. This book can help you optimize your deduplication ratio, while reducing the hardware, power and cooling, and management costs. This Redbooks publication provides expertise that was gained from an IBM ProtecTIER System Client Technical Specialist (CTS), Development, and Quality Assurance teams. This planning should be done by the Sales Representative or IBM Business Partner, with the help of an IBM System CTS or IBM Solution Architect.
Book Synopsis IBM SAN Volume Controller 2145-DH8 Introduction and Implementation by : Jon Tate
Download or read book IBM SAN Volume Controller 2145-DH8 Introduction and Implementation written by Jon Tate and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2015-01-22 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors; yet, 72 percent of them have not started or are only planning big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity it already has. A member of the IBM® Storwize® family, IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Data Platform is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources to help support improved business application availability and greater resource utilization. The objective is to manage storage resources in your IT infrastructure and to make sure they are used to the advantage of your business, and do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs. Virtualizing storage with SVC Data Platform helps make new and existing storage more effective. SVC Data Platform includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these in a virtualization system, SVC Data Platform standardizes functions across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs. SVC Data Platform functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash storage. And IBM Real-time CompressionTM enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into SVC Data Platform also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort. In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we discuss the latest features and functions of the SVC 2145-DH8 and software version 7.3, implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.
Book Synopsis IBM SAN Solution Design Best Practices for VMware vSphere ESXi by : Jon Tate
Download or read book IBM SAN Solution Design Best Practices for VMware vSphere ESXi written by Jon Tate and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2013-09-16 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we describe recommendations based on an IBM b-type storage area network (SAN) environment that is utilizing VMware vSphere ESXi. We describe the hardware and software and the unique features that they bring to the marketplace. We then highlight those features and how they apply to the SAN environment, and the best practices for ensuring that you get the best out of your SAN. For background reading, we recommend the following Redbooks publications: - Introduction to Storage Area Networks and System Networking, SG24-5470 - IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller Best Practices and Performance Guidelines, SG24-7521 - IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 Replication Family Services, SG24-7574 - Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V6.3, SG24-7933 - IBM SAN Volume Controller Stretched Cluster with PowerVM and PowerHA, SG24-8142 - Implementing the IBM SAN Volume Controller and FlashSystem 820, SG24-8172 - IBM System Storage DS8000 Copy Services for Open Systems, SG24-6788 - IBM System Storage DS8000: Host Attachment and Interoperability, SG24-8887 This book is aimed at pre- and post-sales support, system administrators, and storage administrators.
Book Synopsis Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 by : Jon Tate
Download or read book Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 written by Jon Tate and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors. Nevertheless, 72% of them have not started, or are only planning, big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity that it already has. The IBM® Storwize® family, including the IBM SAN Volume Controller Data Platform, is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources. This functionality helps support improved business application availability and greater resource use. The following list describes the business objectives of this system: To manage storage resources in your information technology (IT) infrastructure To make sure that those resources are used to the advantage of your business To do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs Virtualizing storage with Storwize helps make new and existing storage more effective. Storwize includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these functions in a virtualization system, Storwize standardizes them across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs. Storwize functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash memory. In addition, IBM Real-time CompressionTM enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into Storwize also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides information about the latest features and functions of the Storwize V7000 Gen2 and software version 7.3 implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.