Emc Brings Top Performance To Mainframe Customers With Smaller Capacity Needs

Business Wire, April 17, 1995

HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 1995--EMC Corporation, a world leader in information storage and retrieval technology, today unveiled its Symmetrix 5100 Integrated Cached Disk Array (ICDA), extending the Symmetrix family by offering proven, successful Symmetrix 5000 series performance and functionality to mainframe customers who prefer to buy in smaller capacity increments. The Symmetrix 5100 will be ideal for users requiring storage capacity up to 136 gigabytes, small footprint (only 5.25 sq. ft.), or by users preferring multiple storage systems to achieve required capacity.

The Symmetrix 5100 offers unmatched flexibility with a variety of data protection levels, including Mirroring (RAID-1), RAID-S, and Symmetrix Remote Data Facility. RAID-S is an EMC-developed approach to parity RAID data protection, which incorporates new technology in software, hardware and data mapping to overcome performance shortcomings generally associated with traditional RAID implementations.

Early recipients of the Symmetrix 5100 include PrimeNet DataSystems of St. Paul, Minn., a leading provider of direct mail and custom database applications. Senior Systems Programmer Marv Gordon said his company witnessed a dramatic increase in productivity -- contributing directly to his company's bottom line--since using the Symmetrix 5100. "The increased performance level of the Symmetrix 5100 has reduced batch times from up to four hours to thirty minutes. Quite frankly, the operator who ran the first job thought something was wrong because it ran so quickly," said Gordon. "This increase in performance has translated into a business opportunity. We use RAID protection as a selling point to customers that demand protection for business-critical custom databases."

EMC considers the lower-capacity mainframe storage market to be highly strategic. "Other storage providers have made the mistake of underestimating the opportunity in this market and offering 'one-size-fits-all' solutions," said EMC's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Bob Ano. "EMC doesn't feel that way. A company that provides true performance, flexibility and scalability for a tangible competitive advantage will be the logical partner as these companies prosper and grow into larger, higher capacity systems."

Based on EMC's MOSAIC:2000 strategy, a modular approach employing a unique single architecture, the Symmetrix 5100 allows incremental upgrades for investment protection. The Symmetrix 5100 supports from eight to sixteen 5.25-inch 9 GB HDAs and features ESCON, Parallel and Fast Wide Differential SCSI connectivity, fully-redundant and hot-swappable components, Hyper-Volume extension and remote support. List price for the Symmetrix 5100, which is currently shipping, is between $440,000 and $660,000 (US) depending on initial capacity.

EMC Corporation is a Fortune 500 company and a leader in enterprise-wide information storage and retrieval technology, designing systems for mainframe, midrange and open system computing environments. The company has offices worldwide and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC.

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