IBM Storage Scale System 6000 Enhanced for GenAI, Performance-Intensive Workloads

IBM has unveiled an enhanced version of the IBM Storage Scale System 6000, specifically designed to accelerate the deployment of generative AI and other performance-intensive business workloads.

IBM has unveiled an enhanced version of the IBM Storage Scale System 6000, specifically designed to accelerate the deployment of generative AI and other performance-intensive business workloads.

IBM Storage Scale is a software-defined storage solution for managing structured and unstructured data. The IBM Storage Scale System 6000 is a hardware implementation of SDS optimized for demanding AI, high-performance computing, analytics, and hybrid cloud workloads. This system offers a fast and flexible approach for organizations to build a global data platform around their file and object data. It supports the NVIDIA GPUdirect Storage protocol, which enables a direct data path between GPU memory and local or remote storage.

Advanced NVMe-Based Storage Options

The enhanced IBM Storage Scale System 6000 now offers systems configured with either 19.2TB or 38.4TB NVMe-based IBM FlashCore Modules. These modules provide increased data density, capacity, and resilience, a superior alternative to industry-standard NVMe flash drives. Including these high-capacity FlashCore Modules enables organizations to store more data in a smaller physical footprint while ensuring robust performance and reliability. This enhancement is particularly beneficial for businesses dealing with large-scale AI and analytics workloads, where data volume and processing speed are critical.

Specifications – IBM Storage Scale System 6000

Feature	Details
System Features	Active-active dual controller storage system: Dual socket AMD EPYC™ Genoa CPUs (48 cores) 768 GB to 1536 GB memory per canister (system total is either 1536 GB or 3072 GB) De-clustered RAID supporting erasure coding schemas: 3-way and 4-way replication, 4+2P, 4+3P, 8+2P, 8+3P Capacity 96TB to 5.4PBe
Software	IBM Storage Scale for Storage Scale System software Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL)
Software Features	Data access services with POSIX, NVIDIA GPUDirect, Container Native Storage Access (CNSA), CSI, HDFS, NFS v4, SMB, HTTP, S3 Data abstraction services, including cloud and non-IBM storage and multi-site asynchronous and synchronous replication Data management services with integrated lifecycle management to optimize data from memory, NVMe flash, HDD, public cloud, external storage, and tape Data resilience services with FIPS 140-2, 256-bit encryption, cyber-protect, and IBM Safeguarded Copy
Performance	Dual socket AMD EPYC™ Genoa Sequential read performance up to 310GB/s and 13M IOPs2
Networking / Adapters	NDR / HDR switch support 16 x PCIe Gen5 slots per system (8 slots per canister) Up to 12 24G SAS adapters (6 per canister) NVIDIA CX7 supported adapters: 400Gb single port (InfiniBand only) x16 Gen5 200Gb VPI dual port (InfiniBand/Ethernet) x16 Gen5 8 Max High-Speed Network Adapters (CX7) Up to 16 network ports
Drive Support	24 or 48 U.2 NVMe SSDs (30.72TB) 24 or 48 U.2 NVMe FCM (19.2TB or 38.4TB)
Environmental – Drives	Nominal power: 20-25 watts per SSD Nominal power: 30 watts per FCM
Environmental – Controller	Input voltage: 200-240V 50/60 Hz Nominal power: 1,500 W (empty); 4800 W (PSU max) Power supplies: 4 hot-swappable, redundant
Size – Controller	4RU; H: 7″ (175 mm), W: 19″ rack (483 mm), D: 33.5″ (850 mm) without bezel
Size – Enclosure	4RU; H: 7″ (175 mm), W: 17.5″ (445 mm), W: 19.0″ rack (483 mm), D: 39″ (1000 mm), L: 36″ (926 mm) chassis length

Expansion Enclosures for Increased Capacity

The new version of the Storage Scale System 6000 significantly improves its scalability by allowing the addition of one or more expansion enclosures. This capability enables organizations to increase their system’s overall capacity, facilitating the efficient processing of massive AI and analytics datasets. By adding these expansion enclosures, businesses can seamlessly scale their storage infrastructure to meet growing data demands without compromising performance. The enhancement also means the Storage Scale System 6000 can adapt to evolving workload requirements, making it a versatile and future-proof solution for enterprises.

IBM FlashCore Module (FCM4) technology improves both data density and resilience. IBM FlashSystem products use inline data corruption detection software and cloud-based AI to scan all incoming data at the block level, identifying anomalies that might indicate the start of a cyberattack. The new FCM4 technology continuously monitors statistics gathered from every I/O operation, using machine learning models to detect anomalies such as ransomware in less than a minute.

Availability

The new IBM Storage Scale System 6000 products are now generally available.

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