More big news from the cloud–IBM is launching a new product line of data storage solutions, all in the name of re-branding efforts. Its Storwize acquisition has been renamed Real-Time Compression, unveiling a new site to go along with the changes underfoot.

The new storage solutions aim to address the growing demand from companies, as they expand their infrastructure and virtualization needs. More reliance on these systems is empowering companies to work smarter and faster, with more potential to scale. To acheive that flexible scalability, these companies are dealing with a combo of unstructured data, replicated data, hardware and a number of other sever characteristics.

The cornerstone of IBM’s new series is the Storwize V700. It minimizes rack space us, and has software for managing data with a centralized user interface. Including Easy Tier software, the Storwize V700 is speedy and quite effecient, compared to competitors within its lowered price range of mid-tier storage systems.

Key features and examples of the new Easy Tier Software:

The IBM ProtecTIER deduplication technology that IBM acquired in 2008 to help clients eliminate duplicate copies of data and significantly improve storage efficiency;

The IBM Real-time Compression Appliances — technology that IBM acquired earlier this year to help clients reduce physical storage requirements by up to 80%, based on data from currently installed appliances (4);

The XIV high-end disk storage architecture that IBM acquired in 2008. XIV’s architecture enables it to adapt to changing workloads and deliver consistent high performance;

IBM’s Scale-out Network Attached Storage (SONAS), invented by IBM Research to support multiple petabytes of storage in a single file system. Clients can also use XIV and SONAS together to create a complete cloud storage solution; and

The IBM Information Archive, which combines tape and disk storage to deliver clients a tiered storage system that can protect data for long-term retention while helping optimize costs.

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As IBM looks to keep its dominate position amongst cloud services, the company has devoted a great deal of research and development, supplemented with a handful of acquisitions like Storwize, to extend its built-in cloud tools. IBM notes the major business concerns surrounding storage solutions, which also delve into security issues:

“They’re under tremendous pressure to turn this data into insight, and grappling with how they’re going to store and secure it all. IBM continues to develop innovative storage technologies, using its significant R&D spending to help clients not only manage data proliferation, but harness data to create insights for competitive advantages.”

IBM also introduced today a range of other storage products, including:

IBM System Storage DS8800, which based on internal studies, can offer up to 40 percent faster performance than its predecessor, the IBM System Storage DS8700 (6). The DS8800 will next year support IBM Easy Tier.

Updated SAN Volume Controller software that includes Easy Tier, an improved administrator GUI and increased scalability as compared to the previous version of the technology.

IBM Systems Director Storage Control software that manages storage, servers and network technology through a single interface, reducing storage management complexity, risk and cost.