Unlike traditional applications that work with structured data stored in databases, today’s performance-intensive AI and analytics workloads operate on a vast ocean of unstructured data. This includes documents, audio, images, videos and other objects.

IBM Storage Scale System is designed to be the fastest and most flexible way for organizations to build a global data platform around their file and object data. It uses the power of IBM Storage Scale software that is combined with NVMe flash technology to deliver high-performance storage for AI, data analytics and other demanding workloads.

Storage Scale System is based on a massively parallel file system and can be deployed on multiple hardware platforms. These platforms include x86, IBM Power, IBM zSystem mainframes, ARM-based POSIX clients, virtual machines and Kubernetes. It provides exceptional performance for GPU infrastructure, including NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage support.

Storage Scale System 6000 is designed for extreme performance. It features:

• a single 4U node with active-active controllers and redundant hardware to maximize uptime;
• up to 310 gigabytes per second (GB/S) throughput with low latency;
• up to 13 million IOPS with the Hyper-Store NVMeoF performance tier; and
  
• up to 3.4PBe (effective capacity) in a standard 4U rack space.

Storage Scale System 6000 is engineered to scale to thousands of nodes and petabytes of capacity. It runs IBM Storage Scale RAID erasure coding, which provides data efficiency, consistent high-performance, mitigation of storage hardware failures, intelligent monitoring and dynamic tuning of IBM Storage Scale System and IBM Storage Scale data. Installations and updates are delivered by containerized software that speeds and simplifies the maintenance process.

To accelerate the processing of globally distributed data, Storage Scale System 6000 supports the NVIDIA GPUdirect Storage protocol, which enables a direct data path between GPU memory and local or remote storage, such as NVMe or NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF).

Storage Scale System 6000 uses a simple building-block approach with performance that scales linearly, that is, a cluster of 10 Storage Scale System 6000 systems is capable of more than 3 terabytes per second throughput. It supports up to nine SAS hard disk drive expansion enclosures.

IBM Storage Scale System 3500 is for customers who require an entry-level or mid-level system for less extreme product environments. It has many of the same capabilities as the Storage Scale System 6000, with differences mainly in size and capacity.