IBM Begins Delivering RAMAC 2 Storage Products To System/390 Customers

Business Wire, Oct 24, 1995

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 24, 1995--IBM today announced it has begun customer shipments of the RAMAC 2 Array DASD and RAMAC 2 Array Subsystem disk storage products. RAMAC 2 is IBM's second generation of RAID 5 storage products for use in IBM System/390 environments.

It offers twice as much storage capacity as the earlier RAMAC array products, which began shipping in September 1994. To date, more than 6,000 RAMAC subsystems have been shipped to customers worldwide.

The new RAMAC 2 products can substantially reduce customers' data storage and operational costs compared to the earlier RAMAC products, while providing extraordinary levels of data protection and availability.

In a recognition event held at Boston's Ritz-Carlton Hotel today, NYNEX Corp., the Northeast-based telecommunications company, formally accepted delivery of the first production-level RAMAC 2 Array DASD unit to be shipped from IBM. The 180 GB RAMAC 2 unit will join the 4.5 terabytes (TB) of RAMAC DASD that NYNEX has currently installed at its three data centers in Massachusetts and New York.

"One of NYNEX's key business requirements is around-the-clock, around-the-calendar application and data availability," said Gerald M. Higgins, NYNEX assistant vice president, Information Services. "More than ever, our storage subsystems are playing a key role in making this level of availability possible. We welcome RAMAC 2's performance, availability and capacity improvements."

"Customers like NYNEX all over the globe are betting their businesses on RAMAC's data integrity, reliability and performance," said Jim Vanderslice, general manager of the IBM Storage Systems Division. "We're committed to helping them meet those needs, and RAMAC 2 shows how seriously we take that commitment."

Since announcing the RAMAC 2 Array products in June, IBM has conducted an early shipment program in which more than 200 pre-production RAMAC 2 subsystems were installed and extensively tested in production applications at customer sites worldwide. These tests were successful in helping IBM to assure that its products meet the quality standards demanded by its customers.

"RAMAC 2 was developed to satisfy some very tough requirements of our customers," said Vanderslice. "We've tested it thoroughly, and now we're rapidly moving ahead to put these industry-leading storage subsystems into customers' hands."

Using IBM's high-density 3.5-inch 4 GB disk drives, RAMAC 2 stores twice as much information in the same space as the original RAMAC products. This doubled capacity reduces floor-space, cooling and electrical requirements by up to 50 percent, significantly reducing RAMAC's cost-of-ownership over the earlier RAMAC arrays.

RAMAC 2 also includes a number of new features that substantially improve RAMAC 2's data-protection capabilities and maintain previous industry-leading performance levels while delivering twice the capacity. These features include:

o Improved parity calculation that contributes to providing the same high performance as the earlier RAMAC;

o A "dynamic disk reconstruction" capability that provides an alternate choice for disk drive failure protection; and

o A seamless upgrade path that allows customers to intermix RAMAC 2 storage drawers in existing RAMAC racks as desired.

IBM Credit Corporation offers an array of flexible and attractive financing programs for customers acquiring RAMAC 2 products.

IBM is a leading supplier of computer storage products. Through its Storage Systems Division, the company provides a full line of storage solutions for IBM computing systems, for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and for commercial distribution. Its offerings include disk drives, arrays and subsystems; magnetic tape drives, subsystems and automated libraries; optical libraries; storage controllers and related storage management software. -0-

Note to Editors: IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at http://www.ibm.com.

The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive facsimiles of prior IBM product press releases. Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and enter "99" at the voice menu.

RAMAC and System/390 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

CONTACT: IBM Storage Systems Division

Lisa McLean-Ambrosic, 408/256-1925

or

Cunningham Communication, Inc. (for IBM)

Gerry Van Zandt, 408/764-0731