EMC drives advanced software, connectivity to CLARiiON

EMC has announced major new performance and business continuity software solutions for the EMC CLARiiON line of storage systems. The new IP (Internet Protocol) connectivity for EMC MirrorView software and addition of EMC PowerPath software support for CLARiiON bring advanced features of extended-distance and lower-cost remote replication, dynamic performance optimisation, high-end path failover and load balancing to CLARiiON users.

Alex Robertson, country systems engineering and professional services manager at EMC SA, says: "Customer are demanding near-instant recovery after an outage, zero data loss and rapid resumption of operations.

"Solutions like MirrorView over IP apply EMC`s depth of knowledge in IP-based storage replication to enable the secure, automatic, wide-area mirroring of critical information between any combination of CLARiiON CX600 and CLARiiON FC4700 storage systems."

IDC analyst, Robert Gray, says: "End-users are asking for consistency, interoperability, and robustness of function. Suppliers designing multiple generations of products off a consistent software architecture have the best chance of delivering on this. Tactical approaches to software often force complete rewrites with each successive hardware generation, leaving a lot of loose ends. EMC`s early and strategic approach to software means that users get consistent functionality across CLARiiON generations. Not only do the storage applications survive, but they become increasingly more powerful and more valuable with time. This is the fruit of EMC`s strategic approach to software development."

Announced in January 2001, EMC MirrorView software provides synchronous data replication between geographically separated CLARiiON systems for disaster recovery and business continuity. Extending this capability, the new MirrorView IP connectivity option pairs EMC MirrorView software with CNT`s UltraNet Edge Storage Router for extended-distance transmission across widely deployed, cost-efficient IP communications lines.

PowerPath dynamically and automatically allocates more bandwidth to higher-priority applications for I/O optimisation, significantly increasing the speed of the most performance-intensive applications. EMC is extending this high-end software capability to the CLARiiON product line. PowerPath enhances CLARiiON storage network performance and information availability while greatly simplifying management of these critical tasks. Now, customers with both Symmetrix and CLARiiON can share the same host-based software, minimising product costs, interoperability issues and training expenses.