Storage offerings to go beyond the norm. IBM has begun offering storage-on-demand services that go beyond similar initiatives from other storage vendors, including an offer to manage storage solutions from competitors.
The disk and tape storage programmes range from installing extra capacity at the time of purchase to taking over a company's storage systems and charging by the gigabyte. Most of the options have been available previously from companies such as Hitachi, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard, but IBM's programme is the first to provide such a comprehensive range of options and extend the idea to tape.
Jerry Boezel, IBM's manager of storage networking solutions in Europe, said most of the options had been available to IBM customers before, but were individually negotiated. "That's not a practical way of doing business," he said.
The first of the five new offerings is called Step Ahead. Customers of the company's Enterprise Storage Server, known by its codename Shark, are provided with extra storage capacity when the device is first installed, but only pay for that extra capacity when they begin using it. The steps are at 210GB, 420GB, 490GB or 980GB.
IBM's programme mirrors those offered most recently by Hitachi and Hewlett-Packard. The IBM programme, called QuickShip, delivers additional storage capacity to customers on 72 hours' notice.
IBM has also jumped into the storage service provider fray with its own service, run by IBM's Global Services (IGS) division. The programme is similar to Compaq's Private Storage Utility in that it is aimed at businesses. IGS will take over existing storage systems originally sold by third parties. The storage can be hosted or administered remotely. Customers pay by gigabyte, but charges depend on whether companies want features such as off-site data mirroring.
Users of the Magstar Virtual Tape Server can increase capacity by going from four to eight channels, increasing capacity from 72GB to as much as 432GB.
Finally, IBM has extended its leasing programmes to let customers lease or finance systems with spare capacity. The programme is similar to one offered by Sun for leasing extra capacity on its E10000 server.
