Panache builds on top of GPFS and also uses a proposed standard called pNFS (Parallel NFS), an update to the widely used NFS (Network File System) protocol. Because it uses standards, the nodes in a storage cluster can be based on other vendor's storage gear, though it seems likely IBM will sell a product that ties it all together.

Researchers didn't say when Panache will appear as a product, but it seems fairly complete judging from the way they talked about it.

Another storage management technology called Sage is being used internally by IBM Global Services and should be in product form fairly soon.

Sage is a tool for calculating the value of data over time and moving it to the appropriate tier of storage based on its value. The idea is to help companies get data onto the appropriate storage tier more quickly and easily, and thus reduce storage costs. A company might want to put frequently used data on high-performance Fibre Channel drives, for example, and less critical data on lower-cost SATA drives. Some data might need to be moved from one type of drive to another after a set period of time.

Once policies are applied by an administrator, Sage moves the data around automatically. It also lets IT staff run "what if" scenarios, to see what would happen to their storage environment if they set policies in a certain way. And the policies can take into account legal and compliance issues, such as not moving personal data across country borders in Europe.