IBM Marks 10 Years of Leadership in Storage Management Software
Three Complementary Product Families Developed from Architecture
SAN FRANCISCO (August 03, 1998) – .IBM today marks the tenth anniversary of its storage management software (SMS) architecture at the International Storage Symposium, being held here.
Events at the week-long IBM customer symposium will focus on IBM’s continued leadership in the storage management software arena with three distinct products: DFSMS* (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem for MVS); ADSTAR* Distributed Storage Manager (ADSM); and the recently announced StorWatch* family. IBM storage management software can claim technology leadership in the marketplace, based on its increasing patent portfolio.
The entire storage industry is using technology thatIBM invented. Last year alone, IBM received more than 220 storage-related patents. This is two times more than its closest competitor.
Tonight’s anniversary celebration begins with a reception at the symposium, with special anniversary mementos being provided to customers. In addition, a mass mailing of press materials and giveaways is being sent to journalists across the United States.
“With the development of its systems-managed storage concept [SMS], IBM started a market trend,” said Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research, Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif. “IBM clearly has defined the directions of storage management software. From DFSMS toADSM and now with StorWatch, IBM continues to create world-class solutions for its customers.”
IBM has been in the storage management software business since the 1960s when the software was included as part of the company’s enhanced storage functions in various operating systems. “In 1988, we first introduced the storage management architecture to meet our customers’ requirements,” said Duane Dueker, IBM director and business line manager, Storage Management Software, San Jose, California.
“It is the legacy of the storage management software architecture that we celebrate today,” Dueker said. “Our products are market leaders because we pay very close attention to what our customers are saying and respond with viable, leading-edge products. We set the standard a decade ago, and we continue to invest heavily in research and development to assure our ongoing leadership.”
The DFSMS/MVS family provides a comprehensive set of functions, and everything needed by a System 390 environment. Those include: backup and restore; hierarchical storage management (HSM); disaster recovery management; archive and retrieval and tape management.
With more than 480,000 systems installed worldwide, ADSM provides comprehensive enterprise storage management for more than 30 multi-platform environments. ADSM, like DFSMS, also offers backup and recovery, archive, hierarchical storage management and disaster recovery functions. ADSM has been available since 1993 and supports the broadest range of MVS, UNIX and NT platforms, storage devices and comunication protocols in the industry.
In theStorWatch family, previewed in June 1998, IBM is bridging the gap between storage hardware and storage management software. The StorWatch family of product lays the foundation to solve problems of non-integrated storage management tools and reduces associated management costs.
IBM intends to continue its storage management software celebration with a number of new releases in its three product families during the rest of the year.
Source: IBM