Virtual Provisioning for EMC Symmetrix

Virtual
Provisioning for Symmetrix DMX simplifies and accelerates the process
of allocating storage capacity across storage tiers in a storage array,
including the highest performance ‘tier zero’ using solid state drives
(SSDs) (see today’s separate announcement for details), based on specific
application requirements. It enables the Symmetrix DMX system to
present an application with more capacity than is physically allocated,
delivering ‘just-in-time’ capacity allocation and enhanced management
flexibility while improving overall system utilization and energy
efficiency.

Optimized for enterprise
environments, EMC Virtual Provisioning is an enterprise–class
implementation of thin provisioning that will offer seamless support
for remote and local replication operations, supporting
Virtual-to-Virtual (thin-to-thin) replication for EMC SRDF (Symmetrix
Remote Data Facility) remote replication software and EMC TimeFinder
replication software. Virtual Provisioning enables comprehensive
monitoring, automated alerts and provides reporting, forecasting and
chargeback using EMC ControlCenter software to further optimize
management efficiency.

“No one understands
high-end storage infrastructure requirements like EMC, with more
customers trusting their mission-critical storage operations to
Symmetrix DMX than any other storage platform,” said David Donatelli,
President, EMC Storage Division. “Complemented by our best-in-class
physical provisioning capabilities, Symmetrix DMX-4 offers
full-featured thin provisioning that enterprise customers can depend on
for simplified management and improved utilization in demanding
production, replication and application development operations.”

EMC
also announced support for the latest one terabyte SATA II disk
drives on Symmetrix DMX-4 systems, providing a new level of storage
density while also enhancing energy efficiency. With its new support
for ultra-high performance flash storage technology, Fibre Channel disk
drives and high-capacity SATA II drives within the same array, EMC
offers the industry’s broadest range of storage tiering options,
enabling all application tiers to be consolidated within a single
system – giving customers the ability to align data availability and
service level requirements with capacity and cost considerations. ‘In
the box’ tiered storage also helps reduce management complexity and
staffing overhead while enhancing resource utilization and driving
greater energy efficiency.

New Symmetrix remote replication, mainframe and security Capabilities
EMC
SRDF remote replication software, the most widely used in the
industry, has also been enhanced to further help customers with
multiple sites meet stringent recovery point objectives (RPO) for
business continuity purposes. The new SRDF/Cascaded feature uses the
synchronous and asynchronous mirroring capabilities of SRDF to mirror
data from the primary data center to two remote sites. This latest
multi-site replication feature improves efficiency and uses less
storage by eliminating the need for two copies of data at the middle
site while improving the RPO of the third site. With this very
practical approach, customers can achieve the highest level of business
continuity readiness, with up-to-date copies of their data stored in
multiple remote locations.

EMC has also
introduced new mainframe features. Symmetrix DMX supports the latest
HyperPAV functionality of IBM’s newest zSeries platforms. HyperPAVs
process multiple I/Os per volume more efficiently to
improve utilization of storage resources. In addition, EMC’s new Native
Flash support assures mainframe customers of compatibility with IBM
replication functionality.

“EMC has
leveraged its expertise and experience in thin provisioning to deliver
an enterprise-class implementation that optimizes tiered storage and
advanced replication operations,” said Mike Fisch, Director, Storage
and Networking, The Clipper Group. “With new replication capabilities
and expanded mainframe application integration, EMC is providing clear
value to Symmetrix DMX customers to further maximize IT management and
cost efficiencies.”

EMC also announced
IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) and IPsec (IP Security) support for
both Symmetrix DMX-3 and DMX-4 systems. IPv6 is the emerging new
addressing standard for large-scale IP networks, and this support
enables Symmetrix DMX systems to meet the U.S. Federal Government
procurement requirements for 2008. The native IPsec capability
implements the industry-standard IP data encryption protocol within
Symmetrix, which is used for both iSCSI host attachment and for remote
replication over an IP network. Both features will be offered on new
Gigabit Ethernet directors for Symmetrix DMX-3 and DMX-4 systems. The
native implementation can help customers significantly reduce costs and
complexity for encrypting data in flight over IP networks.

Availability
All of the new features announced today will be available and priced separately.
Support for one terabyte SATA II disk drives is scheduled to be available later in Q1 2008.
EMC
Virtual Provisioning, Cascaded SRDF, HyperPAV and Native Flash
compatibility, and IPv6/IPsec support are scheduled to be available for
both Symmetrix DMX-4 and Symmetrix DMX-3 customers later in Q1 2008.