Storage: New EMC Software Bolsters Enterprise Storage Network Solutions - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, March 8, 1999

EMC Corporation, the world's leading supplier of enterprise storage systems, software and services, today delivered several new enterprise storage software products and enhancements that help customers master the complexities of emerging enterprise storage networks (ESN). These new capabilities illustrate EMC's significant investments in the breadth of advanced information management, protection and sharing software required for the deployment of large-scale, open enterprise storage networks. They include:

* EMC Connectrix Management software - the new software helps customers simplify and manage, from one central location, the EMC Enterprise Storage Network through high-level views of multiple Connectrix systems and detailed "drill-down" management of multiple Connectrix Enterprise Directors.

* New Symmetrix embedded software - this major new release of Symmetrix microcode supports critical enterprise storage network functionality such as network switching and non-disruptive migration from existing SCSI connections to the newer Fibre Channel networks.

* EMC PowerPath - a new version of this highly popular software that addresses the optimal performance and availability requirements introduced through enterprise storage networks. PowerPath now provides load balancing and path failover capability for UNIX cluster and Windows NT cluster environments.

* EMC InfoMover software - a new version of EMC's flagship information sharing software now adds Windows NT support, enabling an entirely new segment of the computing enterprise to share information elegantly and efficiently across mainframes, Windows NT and UNIX systems.

Michael C. Ruettgers, EMC President and CEO, said, "Over the years, EMC has taken great strides towards enterprise storage networks through sustained investment in technology and infrastructure, most of which is based in software. For example, EMC pioneered storage networks through heterogeneous host-attach capabilities in 1995, a milestone others still are trying to reach. Today's software additions apply one more level of sophistication to the EMC Enterprise Storage Network and provide clear proof that not all SANs are created equal."

Carl Greiner, Vice President, Enterprise Data Center Strategies, The Meta Group, said, "As I look at EMC, I feel their strategy is dead on. EMC is providing capability within their storage system for common information management services across the entire enterprise. Why is this important? The only way companies can effectively manage their enterprise storage network is through software that automates many of those functions. EMC is clearly and aggressively addressing this issue."

Sophistication Through Software The new EMC Connectrix Management software helps customers simplify the management of EMC Connectrix Enterprise Storage Network Systems from one central location. The software offers a centralized network management view of multiple Connectrix systems, detailed management of each individual Connectrix Enterprise Director, and provides integration with enterprise management systems such as CA UniCenter, Tivoli, and HP OpenView.

The new Symmetrix systems announced Monday include the enhanced Symmetrix embedded software designed to support the highest levels of performance and critical enterprise storage network functionality, such as network switching. The software also enables full utilization of Symmetrix system capacity within an enterprise storage network through a four-fold increase in the number of logical volumes, to which information can be addressed (from 1,024 to 4,096.) These features underscore the massive software investments EMC has made to make Symmetrix systems the premier platform for the deployment of enterprise storage networks.

As enterprise storage networks extend information management services to more and more remote servers, optimal performance and availability are of paramount importance. EMC PowerPath offers this capability to all UNIX and Windows NT systems and now, through the newly enhanced version, to UNIX clustered and NT clustered environments. The software's load balancing feature now increases information access performance by automatically distributing data traffic across all data paths in a clustered environment. The intelligent path management capability provides a higher degree of business continuity by eliminating the possibility of application failure or server failover due to a clustered server data path failure. Data availability is improved by automatically and non-disruptively re-directing the workload from a failed path to an alternative data path.

The emergence of enterprise storage networks is having a profound impact on the number of Windows NT servers that can access centralized enterprise storage resources. As a result, Windows NT systems are now positioned to benefit from cross-platform information sharing with mainframes and UNIX systems. To address this need, EMC also announced Windows NT support for its industry-leading EMC InfoMover information sharing software. InfoMover is helping customers break down the barriers between different computing platforms and increase the level of business value gained from sharing information across UNIX, mainframes and now Windows NT systems on the enterprise storage network. InfoMover performs high-speed, bulk file transfers between any combination of supported Windows NT, UNIX and mainframe servers. File transfer occurs through high-speed channel connections to a Symmetrix Enterprise Storage system, rather than over communications network connections. This significantly improves bulk file transfer speed while freeing server cycles and user network bandwidth.