EMC introduces CLARiiON Disk Library

EMC has announced the EMC CLARiiON Disk Library, a new option for high-speed backup and recovery, the number one storage challenge facing IT organisations worldwide.

Alex Robertson, Technology Solutions Manager, EMC SA, says the Disk Library is a purpose-built appliance that offers the immediate benefits of backup-to-disk and a new alternative to traditional tape-based solutions.

"Combining the reliability of CLARiiON technology with cost-efficient ATA disk drives and compatible tape library emulation, the Disk Library offers customers a proven, easily deployable solution for backup and recovery requiring no changes to existing applications or procedures," he says.

Representing 60% to 70% of total storage management operations, the backup and recovery process is typically a tape-oriented procedure that may not be meeting business requirements. "Through the unique attributes and cost-efficiencies of the Disk Library, customers can now improve service levels and information access while lowering management costs," says Robertson.

While disk-to-disk replication software, such as snapshots and remote replicas, continues to offer the highest possible service levels, the CLARiiON Disk Library improves performance and availability over alternate backup media through the high availability, RAID protection and data integrity characteristics of the CLARiiON architecture.

The Disk Library is available in two pre-configured appliances - the EMC CLARiiON DL700 and DL300, which both offer single-stream performance of up to 80MBps. In typical usage scenarios, Disk Libraries deliver approximately 30% to 60% faster backup and 90% faster restore performance than tape, depending on configurations.

Customers have long understood the advantages of disk-based backup, Robertson says, but many have been unable to move directly to a disk-to-disk approach. "With the Disk Library, enterprises now have a simple and reliable backup and restore solution that is easy to install."