Introduction

IBM Spectrum Connect provides a single-server backend location and enables centralized management of IBM® storage resources for different virtualization, cloud and container platforms.

By implementing advanced storage provisioning techniques, IBM Spectrum Connect allows storage and hybrid cloud administrators to supply and integrate IBM storage with a range of VMware solutions, Kubernetes container clusters, and Microsoft PowerShell automation methods. IBM Spectrum Connect provides a web-based UI that makes this entire administration easy and straightforward, and saves a significant amount of time in setting up, connecting, and integrating the required storage resources into your cloud environment. To enable this wide range of functional integration possibilities, the IBM Spectrum Connect suite includes the following individual cloud interfaces
  • VMware vCenter Server
  • VMware vSphere Web Client (vWC)
  • VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA)
  • VMware vRealize Operations Manager (vROps)
  • VMware vRealize Orchestrator (vRO)
  • Kubernetes
  • Microsoft PowerShell

Through its user credential, storage system, storage space and service management options, Spectrum Connect facilitates the integration of IBM storage system resources with the supported virtualization, cloud and container platforms, while providing the foundation for integration with future IBM systems and Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solutions, as illustrated below. Storage profiles (services), defined in Spectrum Connect, are delegated for use in VMware or Kubernetes environment for simplified profile-based volume provisioning.

Figure 1. Integration of IBM storage systems with different virtualization and automation environments
This image shows Spectrum Connect in different environments.