As we all know, large ocean going ships never collide with icebergs. However, occasionally life deals out some unexpected pleasures for us to cope with. Surviving any disaster in life is usually a lot easier if you have prepared adequately by taking into account the likely problems, solutions, and their implementation. In this IBM Redbooks publication, we limit ourselves to those situations in which it is likely that a SAN will be deployed. We present the IBM SAN portfolio of products, going a little under the surface to show the fault tolerant features that they utilize, and then describe solutions with all these features taken into account. Each of these solutions was built on practical experience, in some cases with cost in mind, in some cases with no cost in mind. Any well-thought-out SAN design will have taken every single one of these concerns into account, and either formulated a solution for it, or ignored it, but nonetheless understanding the potential exposure. With these points in mind, in this book we have two objectives: to position the IBM SAN products that are currently in our portfolio; and to show how those products can be configured together to build a SAN that not only allows you to survive most forms of disaster, but also provides performance benefits. So, make sure that you know what to do if you hit an iceberg!

A disruption to your critical business processes could leave the entire business exposed. Today's organizations face ever-escalating customer demands and expectations. There is no room for downtime. You need to provide your customers with continuous service because your customers have a lot of choices. Your competitors are standing ready to take your place. As you work hard to grow your business, you face the challenge of keeping your business running without a glitch. To remain competitive, you need a resilient IT infrastructure. This IBM Redbooks publication introduces the importance of Business Continuity in today's IT environments. It provides a comprehensive guide to planning for IT Business Continuity and can help you design and select an IT Business Continuity solution that is right for your business environment. We discuss the concepts, procedures, and solution selection for Business Continuity in detail, including the essential set of IT Business Continuity requirements that you need to identify a solution. We also present a rigorous Business Continuity Solution Selection Methodology that includes a sample Business Continuity workshop with step-by-step instructions in defining requirements. This book is meant as a central resource book for IT Business Continuity planning and design. The companion title to this book, IBM System Storage Business Continuity: Part 2 Solutions Guide, SG24-6548, describes detailed product solutions in the System Storage Resiliency Portfolio.

The superabundance of data that is created by today's businesses is making storage a strategic investment priority for companies of all sizes. As storage takes precedence, the following major initiatives emerge: Flatten and converge your network: IBM® takes an open, standards-based approach to implement the latest advances in the flat, converged data center network designs of today. IBM Storage solutions enable clients to deploy a high-speed, low-latency Unified Fabric Architecture. Optimize and automate virtualization: Advanced virtualization awareness reduces the cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data center infrastructure. Simplify management: IBM data center networks are easy to deploy, maintain, scale, and virtualize, delivering the foundation of consolidated operations for dynamic infrastructure management. Storage is no longer an afterthought. Too much is at stake. Companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. This demand is propelling the move of storage into the network. Also, the increasing complexity of managing large numbers of storage devices and vast amounts of data is driving greater business value into software and services. With current estimates of the amount of data to be managed and made available increasing at 60% each year, this outlook is where a storage area network (SAN) enters the arena. SANs are the leading storage infrastructure for the global economy of today. SANs offer simplified storage management, scalability, flexibility, and availability; and improved data access, movement, and backup. Welcome to the cognitive era. The smarter data center with the improved economics of IT can be achieved by connecting servers and storage with a high-speed and intelligent network fabric. A smarter data center that hosts IBM Storage solutions can provide an environment that is smarter, faster, greener, open, and easy to manage. This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides an introduction to SAN and Ethernet networking, and how these networks help to achieve a smarter data center. This book is intended for people who are not very familiar with IT, or who are just starting out in the IT world.

This IBM Redbooks publication is a companion to IBM System Storage Business Continuity: Part 1 Planning Guide, SG24-6547 . We assume that the reader of this book has understood the concepts of Business Continuity planning described in that book. In this book we explore IBM System Storage solutions for Business Continuity, within the three segments of Continuous Availability, Rapid Recovery, and Backup and Restore. We position these solutions within the Business Continuity tiers. We describe, in general, the solutions available in each segment, then present some more detail on many of the products. In each case, the reader is pointed to sources of more information.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM System Storage® DS8700 storage subsystem. This book has reference information that will help you plan for, install, and configure the DS8700 and also discusses the architecture and components. The DS8700 is the most advanced model in the IBM System Storage DS8000® series. It includes IBM POWER6®-based controllers, with a dual 2-way or dual 4-way processor complex implementation. Its extended connectivity, with up to 128 Fibre Channel/FICON® ports for host connections, make it suitable for multiple server environments in both open systems and IBM System z® environments. If desired, the DS8700 can be integrated in an LDAP infrastructure. The DS8700 supports thin provisioning. Depending on your specific needs, the DS8700 storage subsystem can be equipped with SATA drives, FC drives, and Solid® State Drives (SSDs). The DS8700 can now automatically optimize the use of SSD drives through its no charge Easy Tier feature. The DS8700 also supports Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. Its switched Fibre Channel architecture, dual processor complex implementation, high availability design, and the advanced Point-in-Time Copy and Remote Mirror and Copy functions that incorporates make the DS8700 storage subsystem suitable for mission-critical business functions.