IBM is giving storage a boost to the tune of US$400 million.
In a move that testifies to the growth of electronic business, IBM yesterday announced plans to open new testing centres overseas and establish more than 50 SAN (Storage Area Networking) Solution centres with IBM Business Partners worldwide to develop and demonstrate storage area network solutions.
'Big Blue' also announced new services from its IBM Global Services division, including Enterprise Storage Assessment, Planning and Design Services, Implementation Services and Support Services.
New SAN testing centres to be built in Montpellier, France, and Makuhari, Japan, will enable customers to evaluate prototype SAN solutions, IBM officials said. The company currently has testing centres in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Mainz, Germany.
As for the new services, the Enterprise Storage Assessment group will be used to review customers' current storage strategy, requirements and needs. Planning and Design Services will build complete storage solutions, while Implementation Services will assist in SAN implementations. Support Services will help customers operate their SAN configurations and troubleshoot problems.
In addition, IBM will add 1,000 more storage sales specialists, officials said.
IBM also unveiled some new features expected in its Enterprise Storage Server, code-named Shark. The server's cache has been increased to 16GB, and more PCI buses are available. Features such as advanced copy services and Fibre Channel connection, which were supposed to be out this month, will be introduced as they "become available," IBM officials said.
Analysts say those capabilities are behind schedule by several months.
