EMC CLARiiON receives NEBS Level 3 'Carrier Class` certification

EMC Corporation today announced that the CLARiiON CX series of networked storage platforms received Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) Level 3 certification - a standard developed by the telecommunications industry that qualifies equipment under extreme environmental conditions and requires specific levels of technological resiliency.

With this "Carrier Class" certification, customers are now able to deploy automated networked storage solutions that comply with the strictest requirements and specifications set by telecommunication providers, while delivering proven resiliency for traditional storage environments.

Joel Schwartz, EMC`s Senior Vice-President and General Manager, CLARiiON Systems Division, said: "EMC has once again raised the bar for mid-tier storage. CLARiiON has always protected customers from potential infrastructure issues such as data corruption and network failures. Through the NEBS certification process, CLARiiON has successfully survived simulations of the harshest environmental conditions such as earthquakes and extreme power and heat fluctuations."

Passing NEBS Level 3 certification testing requires that systems are able to successfully operate under extreme tests ranging from 144 degrees Fahrenheit of temperature fluctuation, earthquakes up to 8.3 on the Richter Scale and 15 000 volts of electrostatic discharge. In addition, NEBS Level 3 certification assures reliability from other environmental conditions such as lightning, vibration, humidity, electromagnetic interference and corrosion.

Randy Ivans, Global Program Manager at Underwriters Laboratories, Inc (UL), the nation`s leading product safety testing and certification organisation, said: "Successfully completing the UL NEBS Level 3 program is a testament to the durability and ruggedness of CLARiiON systems. In today`s environment, customers across all industries are increasingly looking for greater levels of protection and security in the event of a disaster. NEBS Level 3 is the most rigorous set of tests and provides an extra level of reassurance that CLARiiON CX systems will continue to operate even under extreme environmental conditions."

"Achieving NEBS Level 3 certification is a true indicator that a system can withstand almost anything that`s thrown at it," said Mike Karp, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Management Associates. "This level of resiliency means IT shops have a much better likelihood of meeting storage-related service level objectives, even during a disaster."

Telecommunication customers can deploy CLARiiON in demanding environments such as Central Offices (CO) and Network Operation Centers (NOCs), while continuing to utilise Symmetrix and CLARiiON systems in their data centre. Using EMC SAN Copy, these organisations can efficiently move data among multiple Symmetrix and CLARiiON systems and locations.

"NEBS certification is a crucial step for EMC as they work with networking companies like Lucent to introduce storage solutions to the telecommunications marketplace," said Joe Mele, Optical Network Management and Optical Edge Vice-President and General Manager, Lucent Technologies. "NEBS is the gold standard for ensuring that service providers run communications networks that remain operational during a disaster."

NEBS certification also provides an extra level of reassurance for customers in other industries with unpredictable environmental conditions such as retail, healthcare and transportation. Customers who deploy CLARiiON systems in distributed field locations are able to remotely control, configure and monitor their CLARiiON-based information from a standard Internet connection - anywhere in the world with EMC Navisphere management software. Additionally, CLARalert remote diagnostic support comes standard with all CLARiiON systems and detects hardware and software problems as they occur and automatically notifies EMC Customer Service.

EMC will showcase its new NEBS capabilities at SUPERCOMM, a major telecommunications tradeshow, in Atlanta, Georgia with Lucent Technologies (Booth # 23325), Alcatel (Booth # 21923) and Cisco Systems (Booth # 21599). In addition, today at SUPERCOMM, EMC and Nortel Networks will be participating in the panel: "Storage Area Networks - A New Service Model for Enterprise Data Management."

NEBS compliant CX200 and CX400 configurations are immediately available. NEBS compliant CX600 systems will be available in Q3.

EMC CLARiiON CX series

EMC`s CLARiiON CX series of networked storage platforms continues to gain market share through its unique combination of price/performance leadership, compatible upgradeability and robust, yet easy-to-use management software. Recently, Gartner placed CLARiiON CX in the leaders quadrant on the "Magic Quadrant for Midrange Enterprise Disk Arrays"* (http://www.emc.com/news/analyst/magic_quadrant/index.jsp). The CX series was also selected by customers as the "Best Disk Subsystem" at Storage World Conference 2003.