The writing is more than on the wall regarding the DS6800s. I just powered 2 of them off this morning, having completed a migration to an 8870, because IBM withdrew the DS6800 from support as of September 30.
So I have a couple questions regarding the 8870 and 8880. Since PAV/HyperPAV is included in the 8880 license for Ficon, will that be retro-fitted back to the 8870? We don't have any PAV as we are a small shop and I couldn't justify the additional cost. Will the 8880 function seamlessly in a remote mirror configuration from the 8870? Rex -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Timothy Sipples Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 1:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: New IBM DS8880 Storage: For "Biggest" and "Smallest" Customers I'd like to draw your attention to the new IBM DS8880 storage products that IBM announced this past week. Here are some highlights that I personally find important: 1. I know a lot of DS6800 owners are concerned among other reasons because they're limited to 2 Gb/s FICON, and the "writing is on the wall." The IBM z13 sports 16 Gb/s FICON and cannot fall back to 2 Gb/s channel speed, so there's already a compatibility gap. But for many DS6800 owners the DS6800 was the perfect "small storage" solution at the time. Fortunately, the new IBM DS8884 is here as the perfect replacement for DS6800 storage and as new storage for other "small" mainframe customers (and even some rather "big" ones). Physically the DS8884 is not as small as the DS6800 -- it's a "40U19" package, meaning a "standard" rack size of 1.91 x 0.62 x 1.38 meters -- but it's still much smaller than the DS8870. Of course the advantage of *some* physical size is that it's also more expandable, and with higher density, higher performance drives available. 2. Storage feature licensing is simplified, and that's a great thing in my view. When you order a DS8880 Storage System there are several standard features including Full Disk Encryption (like the DS8870), Easy Tier, and I/O Priority Manager. But now when you order FICON attachment you get all of the FICON-related goodness: PAV, HyperPAV, zHPF, MIDAW, and z/OS Distributed Data Backup as notable examples. (Most of these features simply weren't available on the DS6800.) Everybody should have HyperPAV in my view if only because it's so much easier to manage, and IBM seems to agree. Really the only decision to make is whether you want Copy Services or not, and if you do (probably) you get them all. 3. This is the no excuses, fully enterprise level, "six nines" technology throughout, including the control code. Yes, there's full "Call Home" service. The storage controllers are POWER8-based and expandable up to 2 TB (!) of processor memory now, but the minimum is now up to 64 GB. (There's also compression in your favor, remember.) All drive types are supported including SSDs and HPFEs. I very much liked the DS6800, but once you filled your DS6800 and expansion units you either had to add another DS6800 or replace it with a DS8000 series unit. With the DS8884 you can start small and grow hugely (even within the same cabinet) and without disruption. And the DS6800 never even offered the option of flash. 4. IBM's announcement reveals that U.S. pricing "starts at $50,000." Back in 2006 -- was it really that long ago? -- IBM's DS6800 announcement included a starting price of $86,500 (2006 U.S. dollars), for reference. Both of those starting prices are/were for FCP attachment (e.g. Linux on z, z/VSE, and z/VM with FCP), though in fact the DS6800 still needed a priced feature or two that wasn't included in the $86,500 figure -- plus drives. No matter how you look at it, the value is dramatically improved, and the DS8884's entry price is much lower. 5. Yes, you certainly can attach your mainframe and your other servers to the same DS8880 series machine(s). There are many more ports and far, far better performance than the DS6800 ever had, so you can compress/consolidate your storage a lot more effectively and efficiently. Be sure to factor that advantage into value/cost equations, too. There's a great deal more information in this week's storage announcements, so take a look when you get a chance. I'm a big supporter of "small" mainframe customers and of IBM delivering new, more aggressively priced, and higher value mainframe solutions. IBM is doing that this week, again. Good news. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM z Systems, AP/GCG/MEA E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN The information contained in this message is confidential, protected from disclosure and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, distribution, copying, or any action taken or action omitted in reliance on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. 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