IBM® Real-time Compression™ software that is embedded in IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM Storwize® V7000 solution addresses all the requirements of primary storage data reduction, including performance, by using a purpose-built technology called . This IBM Redpaper™ publication addresses the key requirements for primary storage data reduction and gives real world examples of savings that can be made by using compression. SVC and Storwize V7000 is designed to improve storage efficiency by compressing data by as much as 80% through supported real-time compression for block storage. This process enables up to five times as much data to be stored in the same physical disk space. Unlike other approaches to compression, IBM Real-time Compression is used with active primary data, such as production databases and email systems. This configuration dramatically expands the range of candidate data that can benefit from compression. As its name implies, IBM Real-time Compression operates as data is written to disk, avoiding the need to store data that is awaiting compression.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication captures several of the preferred practices that are based on field experience and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller and Storwize® V7000 V7.2. This book begins with a look at the latest developments with SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 and reviews the changes in the previous versions of the product. It highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools and managed disks, volumes, remote copy services, and hosts. Then, this book provides performance guidelines for SAN Volume Controller, back-end storage, and applications. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. Next, it provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000. Finally, this book highlights several scenarios that demonstrate the preferred practices and performance guidelines.

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication we introduce a new product, the IBM Storwize® V7000 Unified (V7000U). Storwize V7000 Unified is a virtualized storage system designed to consolidate block and file workloads into a single storage system. Advantages include simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. Storwize V7000 Unified storage also offers improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in solid-state drive (SSD) optimization, thin provisioning, IBM Real-time Compression™, and nondisruptive migration of data from existing storage. The system can virtualize and reuse existing disk systems offering a greater potential return on investment. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following books to get the most from this publication: Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3, SG24-7938