[citation needed] Traditional storage systems distribute a volume across a subset of disk drives in a clustered fashion.

When one adds a module, the system automatically redistributes previously stored data to make optimal use of its I/O capacity.

[2] The XIV software features include remote mirroring, thin provisioning, quality of service controls, LDAP authentication support, VMware support, differential, writable snapshots, online volume migration between two XIV systems and encryption protecting data at rest.

[3] The IBM XIV management GUI is a software package that can be installed on operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

[6] The IBM XIV Storage System was developed in 2002 by an Israeli start-up company funded and headed by engineer and businessman Moshe Yanai.