EMC Symmetrix VMAX Higher Into the Cloud

EMC Corporation adds several new features for its Symmetrix VMAX family of storage systems that accelerate customers’ journeys to cloud computing. This year EMC has introduced more than 50 new Symmetrix VMAX features, sparking rapid adoption by customers and high-end storage product revenue growth of 25% in the first quarter of 2011.

The new capabilities announced include:

• Native Symmetrix VMAX support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), the emerging converged networking protocol that can serve as a single network backbone of a cloud computing infrastructure, making Symmetrix VMAX’s storage features available to more users at lower costs.
• Expanded capabilities for Federated Live Migration (FLM), the industry’s first and only built-in array-based functionality for technology refreshes. With new support for DMP (Dynamic Multipathing), FLM can be used in more environments – resulting in migrations with no application downtime and less time, planning and resources than traditional methods.
• Increased security with new support for external servers using RSA Data Protection Manager for the Symmetrix VMAX D@RE (data-at-rest encryption). External key management and previously announced built-in key management provide flexibility for drive-level data security. VMAX supports and incorporates a set of security technologies, resulting in secure multi-tenancy storage for cloud environments.

"Citi has worked with EMC as well as other vendors to provide secure, reliable, efficient and cost effective storage solutions for all its environments.  In order to provide our customers with greater innovation, simplify our storage management and lower our costs, we agreed to collaborate with EMC on the design and implementation of innovative automated storage tiering," said Motti Finkelstein, Managing Director, Citigroup Global Engineering Head for Platforms and Storage.

"As PSA Peugeot Citroen expands its operations globally, our IT infrastructure must be able to scale performance and capacity to address that growth. A cloud infrastructure which could be based on Symmetrix VMAX and features like FAST VP will help us to provide the appropriate performance and availability service levels to applications used in the development, production and delivery of a broad range of vehicles and will allow us to meet customer expectations," said Stephane Humbert, Storage Architect, PSA Peugeot Citroen.

"As disaster recovery initiatives become increasingly important for IT organizations, IT professionals have turned to Riverbed to help them protect more data across larger distances while simultaneously reducing the costs associated with WAN infrastructure. Through advanced integrations between the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) and EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility/Asynchronous (SRDF/A), the combined solution delivers unprecedented levels of visibility and control.  And with the power of the all solid-state drive optimization architecture found in the Steelhead 7050 appliance, IT professionals are able to reap the highest levels of performance and cost savings," said Eric Wolford, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Riverbed.

"There are three customer requirements for high end storage.  It must be powerful, trusted and smart.  In 2011, we’ve delivered dozens of innovative new capabilities that make Symmetrix VMAX the most powerful, trusted and smartest storage system on the market. The customer adoption of these features that we’ve seen just this year alone proves that the journey to cloud computing is well underway and the Symmetrix VMAX is at the foundation of the virtual data centers that are the key enabling technology," said Brian Gallagher, President EMC Enterprise Storage Division.

The new Symmetrix VMAX capabilities and features are scheduled for general availability in June 2011.