IBM Storage Scale System 3500

The IBM Storage Scale 3500 is the entry point to IBM’s next-generation storage scale-out family, delivering a powerful combination of NVMe performance, flexible scalability, and enterprise-class data management. Designed for organisations looking to accelerate AI, analytics, and HPC workloads without breaking budget or space constraints, the 3500 provides an affordable, compact solution that grows with your business.

With IBM Spectrum Scale at its core, the 3500 transforms storage from a simple data repository into a strategic enabler. It delivers fast file and object access, built-in tiering across flash and disk, and policy-driven automation that keeps your data secure, compliant, and ready for action. Whether deployed in an enterprise datacentre, edge environment, or AI development lab, the Storage Scale 3500 provides the performance and reliability you need, with room to expand as your workloads demand more.

Technical Specifications

Performance & Connectivity

• Up to 126 GB/s throughput per 2U system
• Sub-millisecond latency, optimised for AI and HPC pilots
• PCIe Gen4, supporting 200Gb Ethernet and InfiniBand

Drive Options

• NVMe flash drives: up to 24 per 2U system
• Hybrid expansion via JBOD: NVMe + HDD mix

Capacity & Scalability

• Raw capacity: up to ~737 TB per system
• Expandable with up to 4 JBOD enclosures
• Seamless scale-out with IBM Spectrum Scale

Compact, powerful design

At just 2U, the 3500 delivers big performance in a small footprint. It’s built for businesses that want high-speed storage for AI, HPC, and analytics without dedicating entire racks to infrastructure.

Intelligent data management

With IBM Spectrum Scale, the 3500 automatically handles policy-driven tiering, replication, and data placement. This ensures your most critical data is always on the fastest media, while archive and secondary data are efficiently stored on lower-cost disks.

Future-ready performance

The 3500 is designed to evolve with your needs. Support for next-generation workloads like containers, edge AI, and hybrid cloud means it will remain relevant as your IT strategy grows.

Enterprise-class resilience

Encryption, snapshots, and replication are built in. Combined with IBM’s decades of expertise in storage reliability, the 3500 keeps your data available, secure, and compliant.