| Type | Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Frame-Based Disk Arrays | May 24, 2025 | Download |
| Product | Reviews, tips, and advice from real users | May 24, 2025 | Download |
| Comparison | IBM System Storage DS8000 Series vs Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform | May 24, 2025 | Download |
| Comparison | IBM System Storage DS8000 Series vs Dell SC Series | May 24, 2025 | Download |
| Title | Rating | Mindshare | Recommending | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform | 4.2 | 37.2% | 96% | 53 interviewsAdd to research |
| Dell SC Series | 4.2 | 11.0% | 94% | 54 interviewsAdd to research |
IBM System Storage DS8000 Series was previously known as System Storage DS8000.
The most valuable features for us are the box itself, the controller, and the DS 8800s. You are able to store more data on them. They have the neat little features that we use these days. These are global mirror and replication for DR, which allow us to do a lot of DR testing.
We do monthly DR testing. So they're very, very fast. So there are fewer footprints, which mean that fewer boxes are needed. These boxes can actually hold much more than the others.
You have fewer boxes to maintain. The throughput increases, and the features are the same, just better.
When it comes to the 8800s, other than capacity and speed and then, of course, continuing to use the same features that they have today. It's important to have replications. It's important to have flash copy. Those are things that are required to improve upon.
These days, every company needs a disaster recovery plan. If they are in trouble, these boxes, these controllers, the 8800, allow you to provide this plan in different flavors.
There are different types of replication, depending on your company's needs. Nowadays, a financial company, actually any large company, has to have these types of boxes with these capabilities so they can do disaster recovery.
We haven't encountered any issues with stability. So far, so good.
It is easy to work with and to configure. On the mainframe side, once you're configured everything, it is straight up. On the open system side, it's a little different. At least from the mainframe perspective, it's easy.
Regarding technical support, the boxes are new, but the only thing that we've had to do, was in the DDMs. These are the disk drives that go bad from time to time. That's something that's normal. It doesn't hurt anything, because the way the box is designed is that if one of them fails, it has spares. It tells us, "This has failed", it calls IBM and IBM comes and replaces them. It's all pretty much automatic.
We didn't have a previous solution. It's like anything, in that hardware gets improved. We were using 8800s and the 8870s. Now we just went into the 8886s. Again, hardware changes and we had to change with it.
The initial setup was straightforward. Actually, I designed the setup when it comes to how it's going to be implemented in our shop. I then worked with an IBM representative to double-check everything and to help me CARP, i.e., what we call "configuring the box to our needs".
I don't know about alternative solutions considered. I don't do procurement. We're pretty much an IBM shop, so everything in there is IBM.
I would advise them to look into it. See if it matches what they want to do. Most vendors provide these features. If they want to sell their boxes, then they have to have these features. Otherwise, why would you want a box that doesn't have the features that you need for disaster recovery? Other vendors offer similar features, but this is the one we chose.
