IBM to give users storage on demand

IBM is to provide storage to customers on a capacity-on-demand basis, a service which it claims will help customers reduce storage costs and deal with the fluctuating demands of ebusiness.

Daniel Sazbon, IBM's European director of storage area network solutions, said: "The internet is creating an increasing demand for storage. Without storage there is no ebusiness. Capacity-on-demand storage is an important advantage for customers because they can unlock this extra capacity at any time they want."

Previously, it was not too difficult to predict capacity requirements, but ebusiness has created a whole new model with unpredictable spikes of usage. With capacity-on-demand programmes, customers can install a 1.2Tb machine but only use, and pay for, 660Gb until more is needed.

Customers will pay for the extra capacity only as it is used and, according to the package, how quickly the extra capacity is made available. Big Blue is offering a range of five facilities featuring different time scales and billing packages.

Phil Payne, an analyst at Isham Research, said that IBM has previously only offered this technology on an individual deal basis. "It is easier and cheaper for IBM to make it standard," he said. "Capacity is cheap where support and shipping is expensive, so capacity-on-demand should reduce costs."

Xephon analyst Mark Lillycrop said: "Capacity-on-demand will allow greater flexibility for users - this is the main issue. There is no doubt that aspects of the announcement are unique to IBM, but this is part of a general trend in the industry so that users can cope with the unpredictability of ebusiness. Other companies, such as Hewlett Packard, are offering it in one form or another too."

First published in Computing

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