EMC ViPR Software-Defined Storage Platform Available

Joined by partners and customers, EMC Corporation kicked off a 24-hour, around-the-world live launch announcing new technologies that help give IT infrastructure teams the speed they need to lead their IT Transformation.

At this event it announced that the EMC ViPR Software-Defined Storage Platform, a critical enabler to speeding this transformation, will be available later this month.

Using ViPR, customers can manage both their existing storage infrastructure (using the ViPR Controller) and the data residing within it (using ViPR Data Services), enabling them to help drive improvements in automation and lay down a modern storage architecture for future application deployments. ViPR-supported storage includes the new VNX unified storage platform as well existing EMC VNX, EMC VMAX, EMC VPLEX, EMC Isilon, EMC RecoverPoint and third-party arrays including NetApp storage. ViPR provides the foundation for building Web-scale data centers without the need to hire thousands of technical experts to create a custom environment.

Upon availability, ViPR will deliver Object Data Services, a capability that sets ViPR apart from other solutions on the market. They offer support for multiple standard APIs including Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift and Atmos in addition to giving customers the ability to view objects as files, providing near-file access performance without the latency inherent in current object storage models. ViPR Object Data Services are engineered to be deployed on any ViPR-supported file storage including the new EMC VNX unified storage platform as well existing VNX, Isilon and third-party arrays including NetApp storage.

Future updates will be designed to add support for additional third-party arrays as well as commodity hardware. EMC also plans to provide a set of data services as part of the ViPR platform, including an HDFS Data Service which will enable customers to perform in-place Hadoop analytics across their entire heterogeneous storage environment.

This strategy of broad platform support and open extensibility means that customers can benefit from simplified management of their entire storage infrastructure with the freedom to choose the underlying platforms that are appropriate for their particular workloads.

In addition, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2013, EMC Global Services plans to offer a new Software Defined Storage (SDS) Workshop that is the starting point for customers to implement VIPR for their IT environment. The half-day on-site workshop helps customers to identify their specific storage management, control, and automation needs to best maximize the ViPR platform. The workshop evaluates a customer’s application and storage environment and designs the optimum storage service catalog and service classification. A detailed roadmap provides a gap analysis between current state and future state using ViPR.

Laura DuBois, program VP, storage, IDC, said: "ViPR simplifies a very complex problem-the management of heterogeneous storage environments while extending the functionality of existing storage arrays is truly powerful. There’s a macro trend in IT right now toward self-service, and ViPR is a first important step in making this real-and easy."

Ron Redmer, COO and CTO, assure360, a business unit of The Dolan Company, said: "Supporting mixed workload environments comprised of traditional and next-generation applications is central to our overall IT strategy. However, traditional approaches to managing applications can be time consuming and cumbersome. ViPR breaks down traditional application silos and lets us be much more effective in how we deliver storage and support new application requirements. The ViPR Object Data Service is especially valuable as it enables us to use our existing file infrastructure to support object on file capabilities. This means that traditional file and next-generation object applications can access and manipulate the same data as objects or files. This is something we could not do before without moving or copying the data."

James Mystakidis, group executive, Macquarie Telecom, said: "Data growth is at the point where it is outpacing IT’s ability to keep up. This is forcing us, as well as our customers, to look for new, transformative ways to manage data. ViPR is like nothing we have seen on the market – it’s a game changer. The ViPR software platform gives us the ability to efficiently manage data growth and automate necessary processes – allowing us to drive down costs and do more with less. Its software capabilities enable us to simplify our existing storage infrastructure so that we can manage growing customer requirements and workloads in ways we never could before. ViPR is helping us deliver on the vision and promise of the Software-Defined Data Center."

Amitabh Srivastava, president, advanced software division, EMC, said: "Today is a significant milestone in EMC’s vision to deliver customers-both large enterprises and service providers-the foundation on which to build a Web-scale data center capable of growing to tens and hundreds of petabytes of information. By delivering ViPR ahead of industry expectations, we will provide our customers with a lightweight, software-only approach to storage management and a foundation for next generation applications. This approach not only solves the problems they face today, but provides a path to the future."