Symmetrix VMAX and Data Domain Solutions for System z

EMC Corporation announced support for the new IBM zEnterprise System and unveiled a range of new information management and protection capabilities for IBM System z environments to help customers accelerate their journey to the private cloud. EMC is showcased the new solutions at the annual SHARE user conference taking place in Boston.

Private clouds are about lower IT costs and improving agility and, to that end, customers are embarking upon a strategy of data center consolidation and virtualization. As a part of that strategy, mainframe systems are increasingly running mixed workloads, most notably multiple Linux images on System z. In a multi-year technology licensing agreement with IBM, EMC is delivering a range of new storage capabilities to support System z with the same leading features available for virtualized open systems platforms.

The new EMC mainframe storage capabilities are:

• EMC Solutions Enabler Support of Linux on System z, which simplifies management and improves efficiency by enabling the full spectrum of leading EMC Symmetrix VMAX functionality including FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering), virtual provisioning and virtual LUN migrations for multiple Linux images running on a System z.
• EMC z/OS Migrator, an industry first solution that helps avoid application downtime and also maintain disaster recovery readiness during technology refreshes through non-disruptive data migration.
• Deduplication Storage Expansion Option for EMC Disk Library for Mainframe, first announced in early July, dramatically improves backup and recovery processes using the Data Domain DD880 deduplication storage system to achieve longer onsite retention, optimized replication and lower overall disk and tape storage costs.
• FICON Express8 as well as High Performance FICON (zHPF) and Extended Distance FICON support on Symmetrix VMAX helps to improve performance, throughput and link utilization in System z storage environments.
• Enterprise Storage Platform (ESP) for Symmetrix VMAX provides advanced cross platform data access and protection.  Available on Symmetrix since 1996, and now available at no charge for Symmetrix VMAX systems, ESP enables direct mainframe channel z/OS based distributed data backup through an EMC partnership with INNOVATION Data Processing with the FDRSOS product.

In addition, as customers continue using mainframes in virtual data centers, EMC plans to have future support for continuous availability and for planned/unplanned restart in z/VM environments.  

"The mainframe is playing a key role in the journey to the private cloud because of its ability to consolidate and simplify management of virtual workloads. These are the same benefits that Symmetrix VMAX systems deliver in a virtualized data center," said Brian Gallagher, President of EMC’s Symmetrix and Virtualization Product Group. "EMC has a long history of delivering innovative storage capabilities for mainframe environments and we’re pleased to support the new zEnterprise System and deliver new and innovative storage management and protection features. The combination of the powerful Symmetrix VMAX, the new EMC mainframe software features and System z is an ideal fit that can improve quality of service and lower costs while making data centers easier to manage and more flexible."

Availability:
The new EMC mainframe storage capabilities and compatibility with the zEnterprise platform will be available this quarter.