OREANDA-NEWS. July 03, 2015. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has been recognized as a “Leader” in the June 23, 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays report.1

This inclusion comes a month after IBM was identified as the number one worldwide solid-state array vendor in unit shipments and petabytes of data delivered for 2014 in Gartner’s Market Share Analysis: SSDs and Solid-State Arrays Worldwide Report for 2014, by Joseph Unsworth and John Monroe, published May 1, 2015.2 In 2014 IBM sold more than 2,100 FlashSystems, totaling more than 62 petabytes (PB) of storage capacity.

For example, HANSA-FLEX Group, a leading global supplier of hydraulics components, is using IBM FlashSystem to enhance its logistics processes, which is critical to its business. Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, the company operates 380 branches and a fleet of 298 rapid-response service vans in 39 countries and differentiates itself from competition through the speed with which it responds to its customers on product demands and service requests. The company migrated its SAP enterprise resource planning applications to a new infrastructure built on IBM FlashSystem 840 and IBM Power System S824 servers to deliver vital hydraulic system spares to clients within 24 hours of receiving their orders.

“Hydraulic technology is increasingly important in all kinds of manufacturing processes, and when a crucial hydraulic system needs repair or replacement, manufacturers cannot afford to wait,” said J?rgen Kaemena, Head of IT, HANSA-FLEX. “By using IBM storage and systems for our core business operations, we were able to create a faster logistics environment that scales easily and responds to customer demands quickly.”

The IBM Power Systems S824 combined with IBM i operating system, along with the freedom to run SAP solutions and a software defined flash environment, allowed HANSA-FLEX to improve its service response times by 56 percent, improving overall employee productivity. The new systems and storage infrastructure was also able to speed process background tasks by 55 percent and accelerate database processing by up to 70 percent.

The company’s current storage environment manages a nine-terabyte production database with IBM Spectrum Virtualize, IBM FlashSystem and IBM Storwize. With IBM Spectrum Virtualize, HANSA-FLEX has created a single storage environment for all internal platforms. The IBM Power Systems servers and its Windows environment rely on the same storage solution. To maximize application performance, HANSA-FLEX takes advantage of IBM Easy-Tier technology, to intelligently move frequently accessed data to ultrafast IBM FlashSystem 840 to improve overall performance of its SAP applications.

Leaders in the Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays

According to Gartner, “Vendors in the Leaders” quadrant have the highest scores for their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. A vendor in the Leaders quadrant has the market share, credibility, and marketing and sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. These vendors demonstrate a clear understanding of market needs; they are innovators and thought leaders; and they have well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use when designing their storage infrastructures and strategies. In addition, they have a presence in the five major geographical regions, consistent financial performance and broad platform support.”

About HANSA-FLEX:

HANSA-FLEX is a leading global supplier of hydraulics components, headquartered in Bremen. HANSA-FLEX employs 3,394 people and generated a turnover of EUR405 million (USD453.51 million) in 2014.

For more information about IBM Flash Storage, visit www.ibm.com/storage/flash  and follow the conversation on Twitter @IBMStorage.

For more information on IBM Power Systems, visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/ and follow the conversation on Twitter @IBMPowerSystems.

1 Gartner Market Share Analysis: SSDs and Solid-State Arrays, Worldwide report for 2014, by Joseph Unsworth, published May, 2015.

2 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays by Valdis Filks, Joseph Unsworth, Arun Chandrasekaran, June 23, 2015.

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