The DS3000 subsystems become less of a range with the announcement of the DS3500, as it's a bit of a jack of all trades which outdoes all its smaller siblings. Available June 15th there are two versions, the DS3512 and DS3524 supporting either 3.5" and 2.5" disks, with 12 or 24 disks accordingly. There are also EXP3512 and EXP3524 expansion enclosures to match. Both units are 2U high, and this basically brings the DS range into line with the HP MSA2000 range in terms of spindle capacity and density, to the point that the only real difference is the GUI used to manage it.

Of most note with the DS3500 are the changeable host interfaces similar to the DS5020/DS3950, which means that the DS3500 can have a mix of four 6Gbps SAS and an optional four more SAS connections, eight 8Gbps FC or eight 1Gbit iSCSI ports. If you have the FC ports, unlike the smaller DS3000 units the DS3500 *will* support remote mirroring between the DS3500 and any other DS3500/DS4000 or DS5000 subsystem.

Storage at it's most fundamental level is a bucket, where you store useful stuff that you may or may not want again later. Of course what you put that stuff into can vary in design; it might not be a bucket but a box instead, or a sieve, or a safe, or the dog's basket because he never sleeps in the damned thing anyway. Likewise with disk based storage there are various methods to implement a storage subsystem design, all slightly different, all have their own way of doing things.

It's been a busy couple of months within IBM, and it seems that in this case Christmas has come early as we're getting a sneak peak at the toys under the tree. So we've got an interesting line up of new products to cover over the next month, some of which you may already have heard about. However here's an easy one to start with, the "EXP5060" or "1818-G1A" in IBM terms.

For the past couple of years the DS4000 and DS5000 series of storage has only had the one expansion enclosure to choose from, the EXP810 or the EXP520 respectively. Sixteen disks up front, power and connectivity in the back, 3U in height, and a selection of SATA and FC disks in various sizes. However there's now an additional option for disk expansion, the EXP5060.