Feature Benefits

Host interface intermix Support for intermixing FC and iSCSI interfaces allows for cost-

effective SAN tiering

Balanced performance Equally adept at input/output operations per second (IOPS) and

MBps, DS3950 is able to support applications with wide-ranging

performance requirements

Well suited for data warehousing, consolidation and

virtualisation environments that have diverse workloads and

application requirements

Designed to concurrently support transactional applications,

such as databases and online transaction processing (OLTP),

and throughput-intensive applications, such as high performance

computing (HPC) and rich media

Up to 112 intermixed drives

Supports intermixing of FC, FC-SAS and SATA disk drives for

tiered storage

FC disks can be allocated to applications that demand high

performance and have high input/output (I/O) rates; less-

expensive SATA disks can allocated to applications that require

less performance. In addition, FC-SAS disks can help ensure

data integrity with support for the T10 Protection Information

(T10-PI) standard

Enclosure-based intermixing helps maximise efficiency

Built-in efficiencies Modular design avoids over-configuration for an affordable,

entry-point price while offering seamless 'pay-as-you-grow'

scalability as requirements change

Efficient utilisation lowers raw capacity requirements, and

support for intermixing high-performance and high-capacity

drives enables tiered storage

Exceptional per-drive performance creates performance value

Feature Benefits

by getting the most performance out of the fewest drives

IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager software

Feature-rich storage management software enables maximum

utilisation and uninterrupted data availability

Configuration flexibility supports custom LUN tuning to ensure

maximum performance or utilisation

Centralised management of all local and networked based

systems

Quickly configure and monitor storage from a centralised

interface

Configure volumes, perform routine maintenance and add new

enclosures and capacity without interrupting access to data

Dynamic expansion capabilities

Designed to offer the ability to bring unused storage online for a

new host group or an existing volume to provide additional

capacity on demand

Designed to eliminate application interruptions due to growth,

reconfigurations or tuning

Up to 128 partitions Effectively support medium-scale consolidation or virtualisation

environments – thus helping to reduce hardware and storage

management costs

Fully-integrated replication features

Multiple replication options allow administrators to deploy the

one that best fits their needs

Local or remote copies can be used for file restoration, backups,

application testing, data mining or disaster recovery

Support for heterogeneous, open operating systems

Support for Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX® and Linux® systems

enables the storage system to operate in a variety of open-

system environments

Feature Benefits

Custom exclusive or (XOR) engine for RAID-parity calculations

Efficiently handles compute-intensive parity calculations

enabling exceptional disk-based performance that’s ideally-

suited for RAID 5 and RAID 6 configurations

Support for multiple RAID levels; including RAID 6

Designed to support high availability and security for mission-

critical data

Offers flexibility to configure the system to address varying

service levels

Redundant, hot-swappable components

Designed to maintain data availability by allowing components to

be replaced without stopping I/O

Persistent cache backup

Ensures any data in cache is captured and safe in the event of a

power outage

Up to four 8 Gbps FC host ports

Designed to deliver high bandwidth for the most demanding

applications

Provides up to 3,200 megabytes per second (MBps) cache burst

rate for high-throughput applications through the four channels

Backward compatibility with 2 Gbps and 4 Gbps devices

Plan for the future while leveraging current investments

Auto-negotiate connection speed to ease configuration in mixed

environments

Up to 112 FC drives Upgrade from a workgroup SAN to an enterprise network

storage system with a single DS3950 Express

T10-PI data integrity Help assure customers with ultra-sensitivity to data validation

that every I/O is safeguarded every step of the way, from

application to disk

Feature Benefits

Dynamic capacity expansion

Add EXP395 enclosures to an existing DS3950 Express without

stopping operations

Bring unused storage online for a new host group or an existing

volume to provide additional capacity on demand

Dynamic volume expansion