EMC supplies info infrastructure at Comdex Las Vegas

As five days of intensive high-tech exhibiting and deal-making commence here at one of the world`s most influential information technology events, EMC Corporation is playing a major role in providing information infrastructure to more than 2,200 exhibitors, hundreds of journalists and analysts, and hundreds of thousands of COMDEX attendees at all five conference venues spread across the city.

EMC, the world leader in information storage, teamed with EDS, the leading pure-play global services company, Nortel Networks, Hewlett-Packard, Key3Media Group, Inc., which organizes and manages COMDEX, and other vendors to deploy the EDS-COMDEX Network, the world`s largest mobile metropolitan area network (MAN).

In addition to connecting all aspects of COMDEX/Fall 2000, the network will provide the buyers, journalists and analysts visiting the show with reliable, secure and fast Internet connections. The network will enable exhibitors to showcase network-based technology such as optical networks, storage networks, voice-over-Internet Protocol (IP) applications and streaming multimedia through a single high-performance network.

A key element of the MAN is the EMC Enterprise Storage Network (ESN"). The ESN consists of EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems, EMC Celerra" File Server network attached storage (NAS) systems, EMC Connectrix" Fibre Channel enterprise directors, an EMC Data Manager (EDM") backup solution, EMC TimeFinder" data-mirroring software, and EMC ControlCenter" enterprise storage management software.

The ESN will leverage the MAN capabilities of multiple Nortel Optera Metro dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems to deliver multiple streams of high-resolution, rich media content across the entire COMDEX Network. The network also will include Hewlett-Packard RealPlayer Media Server systems.

"The IT community makes an immense investment in COMDEX, so they expect an information infrastructure they can depend on to deliver their messages to the hundreds of thousands of people who flock to this massive event," said Tom Heiser, Vice President of Global Channels at EMC. "It makes perfect sense that EDS and Key3Media would accept nothing less than an EMC information infrastructure, or E-Infostructure, to manage, share and protect the huge amount of information being generated and consumed at COMDEX."

COMDEX visitors will find the EMC solution deployed in the Network Operations Centers (NOCs) of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Exposition and Convention Center. Consisting of thousands of components and miles of cable, the network will connect additional COMDEX venues including the Las Vegas Hilton, the Venetian Hotel and the MGM Grand Conference Center.

The EMC Enterprise Storage Network offer an ever-increasing range of connectivity options from NAS file servers to standard channel protocols such as Fibre Channel, SCSI and ESCON. This breadth of connectivity choices enables customers to consolidate distributed information from departments and business units throughout the enterprise, as well as from remote locations over wide-area networks. By connecting more of the enterprise to the information that drives business success, the ESN offerings greatly enhance customers` ability to generate business value from information living within and outside the enterprise.