IBM® Z has a close and unique relationship to its storage. Over the years, improvements to the Z processors and storage software, the disk storage systems, and their communication architecture consistently reinforced this synergy.

This IBM Redpaper™ publication summarizes and highlights the various aspects, advanced functions, and technologies that are often pioneered by IBM, and that make the IBM Z® and the IBM DS8880 products an ideal combination.

This paper is intended for those users who have some familiarity with IBM Z and the IBM DS8000® series and want a condensed but comprehensive overview of the synergy items up to the IBM z14™ server and the IBM DS8880 Release 8.51 firmware.

This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world.

Bert Dufrasne is an IBM Certified Consulting IT Specialist and Project Leader for
IBM System Storage® disk products at the ITSO, San Jose Center. He has worked at IBM in various IT areas. He has written many IBM publications and has developed and taught technical workshops. Before Bert joined the ITSO, he worked for IBM Global Services as an Application Architect. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Jose Gilberto Biondo Jr. is an IT Specialist in Integrated Technology Delivery, ServerSystems Operations/Storage Management in IBM Brazil. He has nine years of experience in IBM z/OS® and has worked with storage management since 2007. Jose has written several IBM Redbooks® publications. Although he works mainly with IBM storage products (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem Data Facility Product (DSSMSdfp), Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem Data Set Services (DFSMSdss), Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem Hierarchical Storage Manager (DFSMShsm), and Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem Removable Media Manager (DFSMSrmm)), he also works with OEM software products. Jose’s areas of expertise include installing and maintaining storage products, and process automation.

Orlando Ariel Fernandez is an architect and system programmer working for Banco de Galicia in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His roles include Linux support and IBM z/OS and IBM z/VM® System Programming. As an architect, he also provides mainframe support in enterprise and SAP environments.

Robert Gensler is a Senior Software Engineer with the IBM Systems Unit in Tucson. He has 17 years of experience in DFSMSdss and DFSMShsm. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from The University of Arizona.

Eddie Lin is a Senior Technical Staff Member with IBM Systems Storage in Tucson, AZ. He is an architect for the DS8000 Enterprise Storage product, specializing in developing enablement and solutions in the realm of cloud storage and cloud computing. Eddie is the lead architect for the DS8880 Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT) solution. He has over 15 years of experience developing from the original DS8000 storage system to the latest DS8880 line of enterprise storage.

Marcelo Takakura is an IT Specialist with IBM Brazil Lab Services Storage team. He has worked at IBM since 2009 and worked in storage management since 2002. He works mainly with IBM storage products like Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS), TS7700, DS8000 storage system, and z/OS data migration and availability (tape copy, IBM Transparent Data Migration Facility (IBM TDMF), IBM z/OS Dataset Migration Facility (IBM zDMF), IBM Copy Services Manager (CSM), and IBM HyperSwap®). His areas of expertise include installing, configuring, and supporting z/OS storage products.

Sidney Varoni Jr. is a Storage Technical Advisor in Brazil. He has 11 years of experience working with enterprise IT Infrastructure, and he is focused on mainframe and storage areas. He holds a degree in Computer Science. His areas of expertise include high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) solutions, such as Storage Copy Services, IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex™ (IBM GDPS®), and IBM Enterprise Storage Products.

Alexander Warmuth is a Consulting IT Specialist at the IBM European Storage Competence Center. Working in technical sales support, he designs and promotes new and complex storage solutions; drives the introduction of new products; and provides advice to customers, Business Partners, and sales. His main areas of expertise are high-end storage solutions and business resilience for IBM z Systems® and Linux. He joined IBM in 1993 and has worked in storage technical sales support since 2001. Alexander holds a diploma in electrical engineering from the University of Erlangen, Germany.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Lydia Parziale, Project Manager, IBM
International Technical Support Organization, San Jose Center

Harry Yudenfriend
IBM Fellow, Storage and I/O Technology, IBM

Thanks to the authors that published the first edition, IBM DS8880 and IBM z Systems Synergy, which was published in January 2017 and started the second edition, IBM DS8880 and IBM Z Synergy:

Werner Bauer, Sherry Brunson, Andre Coelho, Matthew Houzenga, Peter Kimmel, Robert Tondini

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