EMC Wednesday is planning to unveil a refresh of its
high-end storage systems, the Symmetrix DMX line, according to sources
familiar with the company’s plans.
The sources told internetnews.com these particular revisions include
enhanced interface support and advanced replication capabilities. “EMC is
stepping up their ability for these issues,” the sources said.
The Symmetrix DMX refresh will include the new DMX3000 array, which
features as many as 576 drives and 84TB of capacity. The DMX3000 will also
be available with a new version of Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF),
offering asynchronous replication over thousands of miles for disaster
recovery, the sources said.
The Hopkinton, Mass., storage systems vendor also plans to unveil upgrades to
its DMX800, DMX1000 and DMX2000 arrays, including popular data transport
protocols such as native Ficon mainframe connectivity and Internet SCSI
(iSCSI)
for backup.
EMC also added snap copy functions to Symmetrix for live data backup that
doesn’t hamper service. To give users more options and interoperability, new
Symmetrix server controllers will allow users to mix and match data
transport protocols among Ficon, Gigabit Ethernet and iSCSI.
EMC refused to comment on this story.
Unveiled to much fanfare in February, the Direct Matrix Architecture and
accompanying Symmetrix systems sounded a return to the Hopkinton, Mass.
company’s glory days of innovation, according to many industry analysts, who
said they saw the company lose market share to rivals such as IBM
and Hitachi Data Systems
in the high-end space.
Featuring a new interconnect framework for piping data effortlessly from one
point to another, Direct Matrix Architecture eliminates the performance
ceiling inherent in all bus- and switch-based storage architectures.
Symmetrix DMX, which is compatible with all EMC software, provide high
performance for sustained workloads and unexpected activity.
EMC President and CEO Joe Tucci said then that his firm could have developed
yet another bus- or switch-based Symmetrix, but chose not to because
customers were expecting something more powerful, and worth the investment.
To be sure, analysts lauded EMC’s achievements at the time, noting the
products put EMC back in the performance leadership position, which they
could not claim in recent years.
Particularly impressing was EMC’s ability to make all of the previous
Symmetrix-compatible software work with the new DMX line, as well as disk
compatibility across lines. Software compatibility allows for some creative
use of new and old solutions.
For example, users could use the DMX 800 modular units as replication
solutions for high-end DMX or existing Symmetrix, or even use the older
Symmetrix as replication targets for the new DMX products.
But hardware is hardly the most compelling offering for EMC these days. The
company is generating plenty of positive press for its recent
software-oriented maneuvers, including its purchase of
BMC’s storage line and outright acquisition of Legato Systems for $1.3 billion earlier this month.
The rap is that EMC is evolving into a proprietary provider of hardware
systems, but an open seller of storage software.
EMC to Refresh Symmetrix DMX Systems
