EMC sets new price point for mid-tier networked storage

EMC has announced significant enhancements to the CLARiiON CX200 networked storage system, including a new single controller option, integrated ATA drive technology and a 60% performance boost.

"In addition, EMC further simplified CLARiiON system management through the addition of customer-executable, non-disruptive upgrades for CLARiiON software applications," says Alex Robertson, Technology Solutions Group Manager, EMC SA.

"A broader range of customers demand access to EMC`s storage technology," he says. "EMC continues to deliver products that address the requirements of small to mid-size businesses. The ability to support high-performance drives for OLTP applications and ATA disk technology for backup-to-disk in one system is very appealing to end-users."

The centrepiece of the announcement is the entry-level member of the popular CLARiiON CX series. The CX200 is optimised for those organisations and departments who need a cost-effective and easy-to-use system, while also providing a clear upgrade path for future growth. EMC`s CX200 provides a full range of data integrity features including parity checking, disk scrubbing and simple management software.

This announcement highlights a number of customer benefits through increased breadth and scale of the CLARiiON CX200 system, including a lower entry price. "Customers can now purchase CX200 systems at a new entry price via the single controller option. These customers can upgrade to the CX200 dual-controller model without movement or migration of data," says Robertson.

The CX200 system performance has increased 60% to 40 000 I/Os per second. This boost in performance enables customers to consolidate more servers, support more users per server and increase transaction rates. "New and existing CX200 customers are able to intermix Fibre Channel and ATA drives in the same CX200 system to maximise usage of the storage infrastructure," says Robertson.

Customers can use high-performance Fibre Channel drives for online transactional, file/print, messaging or Web applications, while ATA drives can be utilised for backup-to-disk operations - all in the same array.

Robertson says that customers are now able to perform non-disruptive upgrades to CLARiiON`s FLARE operating system and applications such as Navisphere and Access Logix. "The Web-enabled Navisphere management interface offers guidance and progress indicators to ensure a successful upgrade and simplified system management."