EMC Is First to Tap Internet Protocol With Storage-Based Remote Data Replication; SRDF Over IP Opens Customers to New Levels of Business Acceleration - Symmetrix Remote Data Facility - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 14, 2000

In an industry-first move that completely rewrites the rules of information deployment, EMC Corporation, the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software and services, Monday announced Internet Protocol (IP) support in its market-leading data replication and information protection software, SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility). By tapping into the IP-based networking infrastructure, which today is employed in virtually every large enterprise, SRDF Over IP helps customers accelerate, simplify and optimize business-critical information processes and resources in innovative, cost-effective ways.

The SRDF Over IP solution enables the automatic replication of files, databases and applications between geographically separated EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems over secure, ubiquitous, but frequently underutilized IP networks. As a result, SRDF Over IP simplifies the information infrastructure, streamlines staff overhead and makes vital information more economically and flexibly available wherever it can provide the most value to the business.

The product is ideally suited for applications requiring localized processing, speedy information access and remote data replication. For example, when customers need to deploy mirrored Web sites, refresh data warehouses or migrate entire suites of applications and databases, SRDF Over IP creates copies of the data and securely transmits the copies over the high-bandwidth IP network to the remote Symmetrix system. There, the data can be employed to generate additional revenue based on local business opportunities, as well as protect vital enterprise applications from planned and unplanned outages.

Enhanced Information Value SRDF Over IP enables businesses to capitalize on important e-focused technology and business trends, including the onrushing convergence of data, voice and video over existing IP networks, and the explosion of customer, market and competitive information gaining mission-critical status.

"Our enthusiasm for SRDF Over IP is about more than the technology, which itself is a major achievement," said Mike Kahn, Chairman and Co-founder of The Clipper Group, Inc., an independent consulting firm based in Wellesley, Mass. "It also is about the enhanced economic value and new opportunities that SRDF now delivers to enterprise customers. It is about lowering telecommunication costs, which can be reinvested to guarantee the availability of a wider and/or growing set of mission-critical data. It is also about deploying, where previously considered impractical or too costly, remote copies of files and databases for enhanced accessibility and higher information value."

The Clipper Group estimates that SRDF Over IP can significantly reduce the cost of moving information between primary and remote Symmetrix systems, compared with the cost of remote data mirroring over dedicated T1, T3 or ATM networks. This enables users to hold data replication costs constant while increasing the volume of data that is remotely protected or employed productively in localized applications.

"EMC is taking a large step in the right direction by implementing storage data replication over a converged IP network," said Soni Jiandani, Cisco Systems Workgroup Business Unit, Vice President of Marketing. "Cisco's intelligent networking plays an instrumental role in ensuring the high performance and highly reliable delivery of this mission-critical application, resulting in clear business benefits to Cisco's and EMC's mutual customers."

Mark Ward, EMC Vice President of Global Marketing, said, "In today's dynamic business environment, characterized by mergers and acquisitions, competitive threats, and new revenue opportunities, SRDF Over IP offers our customers new possibilities for employing and protecting the fast-growing volume of e-information that drives business success. The result is enhanced customer satisfaction and faster, better-informed business decisions."

Ward added, "With more than 6,000 licenses sold since its introduction in 1995, SRDF continues to lead EMC's focus on transforming storage from a passive commodity into a software-driven information infrastructure delivering increased business value. Once again, EMC is at the center of the world's dynamic information trends."

Higher Availability, Faster Information Access "EMC stands alone in offering battle-tested approaches to efficiently mirror data over extended distances," said Jon Prall, Vice President of Operations at Excite@Home, of Redwood City, Cal., which recently used SRDF Over IP to mirror more than one terabyte (1 TB) of data between Symmetrix systems located on the West and East Coasts. "For Excite@Home, SRDF Over IP offers a rock-solid vehicle for replicating data to multiple data centers, enabling network traffic load balancing and cost-effective information protection. SRDF Over IP enables Excite@Home to more simply and flexibly implement an architecture that will enhance our customers' Internet experience by reducing access times and improving data availability."