The IBM System Storage DS3500 Express Storage Systems and EXP3500 Express Expansion Units are the newest addition to the IBM System Storage DS3000 series family of entry disk storage systems. The DS3500 delivers affordable, entry-level configurations for small and medium businesses in compact 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosures, with the flexibility to scale in capacity, performance, host interfaces, and functions as your business grows or requirements change.

The DS3500 combines next-generation controller technology with a 6 gigabit per second (Gb) SAS interconnect to the disk drives and the latest, high-performance host interface technologies - 6 Gb SAS and 8 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) - to deliver new levels of performance to the DS3000 series. The DS3500 is available with single or dual controllers, with the option to further enhance the performance of your dual controller system with the Turbo Performance option. You choose the configuration to match your current performance requirements and budget, and IBM offers a way to protect your investment with an upgrade path to later add the options you need.

In addition to 6 Gb SAS and 8 Gb FC host interfaces, the DS3500 also supports 1 Gb iSCSI. You can intermix FC or iSCSI concurrently with SAS, giving you the flexibility to address your shared storage requirements within a single system.

The DS3500 flexibility and options also extends to the disk drives. The DS3500 is available in two models:

– The DS3512 Express Storage System holds up to twelve 3.5-inch SAS disk drives
– The DS3524 Express Storage System holds up to twenty-four 2.5-inch (small form factor) SAS disk drives

The capacity of a DS3500 system can be increased to up to 96 disk drives with the attachment of EXP3500 expansion units, also available in two models:

– The EXP3512 Express Expansion Unit holds up to twelve 3.5-inch SAS disk drives
– The EXP3524 Express Expansion Unit holds up to twenty-four 2.5-inch (small form factor) SAS disk drives

All models support dual-port, 6 Gb SAS high-performance, high-capacity nearline, and self-encrypting drives. Disk drives of the same form factor can be intermixed within the appropriate DS3500 or EXP3500 enclosure. You can even intermix EXP3512 and EXP3524 expansion units behind either a DS3512 or DS3524 storage system.

The DS3500 carries on the tradition of DS3000 series data protection features with support for multiple RAID levels (0 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10), storage partitions to manage volume-to-host access, and FlashCopy and Volume Copy to create logical or physical copies of your data.

The DS3500 brings the following new functions into the DS3000 series family:

– Remote Mirroring for data replication from one DS3500 system to another DS3500 system using either synchronous or asynchronous data transfers over FC communication links
– Full Disk Encryption (FDE) with local key management and self-encrypting disk drives (SED) for comprehensive data security and protection
– IBM DS Storage Manager, previously available only on the IBM System Storage DS4000 and IBM System Storage DS5000 products, brings new robustness and functionality while maintaining the ease-of-use and intuitive nature of the DS3000 Storage Manager