Recommended Vendor Profile

Storage and DASD Hardware Preferred Partners

Profile for partner relationships that help IBM i buyers evaluate internal DASD expansion, external SAN attachment, and storage performance needs.

Company Overview

Storage hardware partners often help buyers move past generic capacity shopping and into a real performance-driven sizing conversation. They may specialize in internal DASD expansion, external SAN attachment enablement, or both.

The strongest partners ask for actual ASP disk busy and I/O wait data before recommending hardware, rather than sizing purely on free space remaining.

Best Fit

Best fit for buyers who suspect a storage performance issue, not just a capacity shortage, and want sizing based on real disk pool activity data.

Recommended Use Cases

  • Shops seeing disk-related performance symptoms on IBM i
  • Buyers evaluating external SAN attachment for the first time
  • Teams expanding internal DASD on an existing server

Strengths

  • Size storage against real disk busy and I/O wait trends, not just free space
  • Confirm adapter and firmware compatibility before hardware ships
  • Plan attachment and ASP configuration changes with minimal disruption

Considerations

  • Ask what performance data the partner reviews before recommending hardware
  • Confirm compatibility testing covers your exact server and firmware level
  • Clarify who owns the ASP configuration change during implementation

Discovery Steps

  • Pull current ASP disk busy percentage and I/O wait trends
  • Document growth expectations for data volume over the next planning cycle
  • Compare internal expansion against external SAN attachment on cost and complexity

Specialties

ASP performance analysis SAN attachment enablement DASD expansion sizing Storage adapter compatibility

Integrations

IBM i disk pool and ASP configuration Enterprise SAN storage arrays Storage performance monitoring tools

Support

Usually a scoped sizing and hardware sourcing engagement, with optional implementation support for SAN attachment or DASD expansion configuration changes.

Next Step

Once performance data and growth expectations are documented, buyers can move into specific storage hardware sourcing conversations.

View Storage Hardware Partners