IBM Adds Speed To Big Data Insights With Next-Gen IBM FlashSystem V840

IBM will give clients more ways to speed the access to Big Data insights with a next-generation flash system that offers a fivefold increase in application performance over the previous model and supports IBM’s software defined storage for greater virtualization and scalability.

The IBM FlashSystem V840 now integrates into a new Control Enclosure the FlashSystem with IBM’s SAN Volume Controller (SVC) data virtualization system, a key component of IBM’s Software Defined Storage solution.

The solution includes such advanced technologies as Real-time Compression that compresses “live” data on-the-fly for a three-and-a-half time’s boost in performance over the previous version.

Such advanced system performance, as well flash technology’s ability to help lower energy and cooling costs, got the attention of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, one of the largest grocery store companies in the U.S. Northeast. With 300 stores, representing seven branded retail operations, including the popular A&P supermarket chain, the Montvale, N.J., company was challenged simultaneously by swelling data volumes and increasing demands for higher performance.

“The information we’re generating and analyzing daily is critical to the success of our business,” said Richard Angelillo, Vice President, Information Services at The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. “By moving our storage and Big Data efforts from spinning disk to the new IBM flash solution we’ve improved latency issues from as much as 27 milliseconds to microseconds.”

Since the highly dense IBM FlashSystem V840 can support up to 1.6 petabyte of data in a single system, clients are able to reduce energy costs, as well as data center floor space. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, for example, migrated 40TB of data from seven hard drive storage systems to a single V840 FlashSystem, saving the company not only valuable data center floor space, but cooling and energy costs.