​IBM has been busy in the last 12 months adding a huge range of new features to Spectrum Protect (formerly TSM) to support the new Software Defined Storage model.

​In 2015 Spectrum Protect 7.1.3 introduced Container storage pools, which can reside in the cloud, as well as inline deduplication.
Spectrum Protect 7.1.5 released in March 2016 has added significant new features to maximise your investment. Remember that this new functionality is included in the base licence.
Details on the new features in 7.1.5. can be found here

This blog article will highlight two of the most significant new features

• Server Side Inline Compression  
• Cleversafe storage pool support

The primary and possibly the most important reason is that TSM 5.5 has been out of support since 2014. Data protected with older versions is more vulnerable to failure and exposed due to lack of support.  The table below shows the support lifecycle for key releases.

We were delighted to be asked to present at the UK Tivoli User Group at IBM Southbank yesterday – for those of you that missed, or wanted a copy of our presentation – here it is! 

​See if your environment gets a PASS or FAIL against standard Fit  For Purpose (FFP)  criteria:
 
At the event we offered a free ‘FFP’ analysis of your TSM / Spectrum Protect environment – if you are interested the process is simple:

1. Send us an email info@attam.co.uk explaining that you want to take up the offer. You email should include your contact details – including a phone number we can contact you on.
2. We will arrange to collect data from your Spectrum Protect/TSM Environment
3. We will analyse the collected data using our ProtecTrix for Spectrum Protect analysis and reporting tool
4. We will contact you to arrange a date and time to go through our findings

 
You’ll also be able to use our ProtecTrix for Spectrum Protect application to take a look at what you have
 
 
License Assessment and TSM Health Check:
 
Alternatively if you are interested in the other offering we discussed, please drop an email to Richard.hemsley@attam.co.uk & we can start the ball rolling.
 
 
 
 Tivoli User Group

The Tivoli User Group is an independently run user group that is supported by IBM and acts as a forum for users to:

• View the latest product announcements and road maps
• Hear how other users are deploying technology
• Discuss issues in an open forum
• Network with other user

 
If you want more information on the UK Tivoli User Group – go to https://www.imwuc.org/tivoli-user-group-uk

When in Rome....

Attam have just returned from a trip to the 2016 IBM Systems University in Rome
While it's always great to meet up with old and new friends, it's also a great opportunity to get a glimpse of the future - from the horses mouth.

Some key messages we have brought home with us:

Cloud.
IBM are committing themselves to a cloud based future. IBM's Software Defined Storage Strategy, available as Spectrum, allows a much more flexible response to future cloud based architectures.
IBM Spectrum is designed to operate seamlessly across Private, Public and Hybrid clouds
For example, Spectrum Protect (previously TSM) now supports various cloud based models with both cloud based storage and cloud based Spectrum Protect servers supported

Spectrum
IBM are pushing ahead strongly with the re-branding of Storage products under the Spectrum banner. IBM are also demonstrating integration of products across the storage range - for example the new Flash Systems A9000 and A9000R which combine Flash hardware technology with Spectrum Accelerate software stack, based on the tried and trusted XIV architecture.

IBM are adding complementary products to the Spectrum range - for example Cleversafe offers highly scalable and higly available storage, while Aspera offers superlative high-speed data transfer. Expect these products to be integrated fully into the Spectrum range in the near future - as an example, Spectrum Protect already supports Cleversafe storage pools and Aspera data-transfer is due soon.

Flash
There is a drive to integrate Flash Storage as a performance tier into a cloud-based storage hierarchy - Flape (Flash and Tape) and Floud (Flash and Cloud) for example.