Small and mid-sized businesses are dealing with larger volumes of data than ever before, but without the big enterprise budgets. What they need are budget-stretching solutions that reduce the complexities of data storage while being easy to use.
IBM System Storage
Meeting the storage needs of SMB with modular
systems and storage solutions from IBMSmall and mid-sized businesses (SMB) face the same dataHighlights storage challenges as any large enterprise. The exponentialgrowth in the volume of information to be stored today affects? Optimize SMB resources by reducing storage com- SMBs in the same way. SMBs, however, do not always haveplexity and improving ease of use the same resources as larger businesses to accommodate thecost and complexity of adding to and maintaining storage solu-? Increase ?exibility to expand storage capacity and tions. The IT staff of an SMB is generally a small percentage ofboost performance the SMB's overall staff. Therefore, IT personnel at an SMB mustcover a broad spectrum of IT know-how but may or may not? Realize cost efficiencies that can help stretch IT have the resources for in-depth knowledge of any one budgets specialization-such as storage.
? Leverage world-class support from IBM to help foster In addition, SMBs most often have less capital to invest in stor-a competitive edge age infrastructure than do their larger counterparts. So with lessto spend, SMBs need to get more for their buying dollar. Facingthese constraints of staff and ?nances, an SMB must ?nd astorage solution that is cost effective and easy to implementand maintain, yet at the same time able to ful?ll all of the stor-age requirements of the business to the same rigorous stan-dards as those found in large enterprises.
When considering their storage needs, SMBs often considerease of use, ?exibility, cost efficiency and support. IBM offersSMBs a wide range of storage options that can help meetthese four critical requirements using its Express AdvantageTofferings. Express Advantage solutions include a comprehen-sive line of hardware, software, services and ?nancing solutionsdesigned speci?cally to address the business challenges of theSMB marketplace. These solutions are easy to install anddeploy, easy to manage, easy to buy, and are priced for mid-sized businesses.
2?This family of storage products includes IBM System StorageT Flexibility to increase performance and efficiency, such asDS3000 series Express disk storage systems, IBM System by adding a Serial Advanced Technology AttachmentStorage DS4700 Express disk storage system, IBM System (SATA) drive layer to an existing Serial Attached SCSIStorage N series Express uni?ed storage systems, IBM System (SAS) drive layerStorage TS3100/3200 Express and TS2200/2300 seriesExpress tape storage systems, and IBM System Storage SAN IBM's disk solutions, for example, provide scalability through theExpress products. use of expansion enclosures in the base array, increased diskcapacity by mixing SAS and SATA drives, and increasedReducing complexity for ease of use resource utilization through storage partitioning, which permitsEase of use is an important factor to consider when developing multiple servers to address the same pool of disk storage.a storage solution because many SMBs simply do not have thehuman IT capital to spend on complex solutions. SMB IT teams Optimizing IT budgets for SMBhave to deal with a wide range of IT issues, but may not have Organizations face three main costs when deploying storagethe luxury that large enterprises have to drill down into any one solutions: the cost of resources required to maintain IT arena. IBM storage solutions are designed to simplify imple- storage, operational costs, and capital costs. IBM createdmentation and maintenance of the storage infrastructure. For Express Advantage to help meet the unique requirements ofexample, the DS3000 series Express provides an Express Kit SMB customers, helping them stretch their IT dollars whileand a Quick Install Guide to direct an IT administrator through addressing their storage requirements.the process of installing and maintaining storage. The kit andthe guide include easy-to-follow instructions that can help sim- Enterprise-level support for the SMBplify the deployment process for the IT generalist. IBM can help SMBs meet the challenges of support through avariety of warranty and non-warranty service programs, includ-Meeting changing needs with increased ?exibility ing extended warranties for parts and labor. And with its globalTo optimize IT investments, SMBs often look for a single solu- presence, IBM is able to provide service support just about any-tion that can meet changing requirements over... [download for more]