EMC is delivering major advances in information storage performance, connectivity, capacity and functionality - including increases of up to 50% for open systems throughput, 100% for mainframe throughput, 260% in capacity and 500% in connectivity.
"Hyper-consolidated enterprise information storage delivers two must-have attributes for customers - increased productivity and lower costs for critical resources. With the new Symmetrix models, EMC continues to be the catalyst for customers` hyper-consolidation efforts of both mainframe and open systems environments. Information storage systems are quickly replacing servers to provide the processing power, capacity and functionality necessary to get the most value from information. EMC Symmetrix systems started that phenomenon, and continue to accelerate it today," says Graham Prime, product marketing manager at EMC SA.
The new Symmetrix family - the Symmetrix 8830, 8530 and 8230 systems - highlights the power of the Symmetrix MOSAIC architecture. This modular architecture gives EMC the competitive-edge for consistent, rapid deployment of next-generation storage technology while maintaining an increasingly stable and robust framework over time.
The enduring Symmetrix standard stands in contrast to the stop-and-start approaches of other vendors who disrupt their customers` investments by introducing new information storage architectures on a regular basis.
Three new models are currently shipping. With up to 69.5TB in a single 17.5 square-foot Symmetrix cabinet, the 8830 offers unmatched levels of enterprise consolidation with more cache, connectivity and processing power. Providing up to 17.4TB of capacity in a 6 square-foot single-bay Symmetrix cabinet, the 8530 drives multiple applications and offers denser connectivity and faster performance for the middle of the Symmetrix range. The 8230 delivers Symmetrix performance and functionality in the smallest footprint ever, offering up to 3.5TB of capacity and flexible connectivity options.
The new Symmetrix 8000 models include major performance enhancements to a number of components, including processor speeds (upgraded from 266MHz PowerPC to 333MHz Power PC), number of processors (increased from a maximum of 32 to a maximum of 80), and total system bandwidth. These new processing advances enable the new Symmetrix models to perform up to 61 760 million instructions per second (MIPS) - six times more than any other information storage system in the industry.
EMC has also announced the newest version of the Enginuity Operating Environment for Symmetrix systems. Enginuity version 5568 supports 64 GB of global cache, as well as a greater number of Symmetrix addressable volumes - up to 8 000 separate addresses.
Symmetrix Global Cache Director with CacheStorm Technology, a new industry innovation from EMC, enhances system performance and throughput, improves responsiveness and manages peak workloads, resulting in a cache resource that is up to eight times more efficient than other information storage systems. This technology reduces contention for shared cache memory and optimises the utilisation of system resources, eliminating bottlenecks associated with cache memory. This is achieved by partitioning the global cache memory into 16 independent and concurrently accessible memory regions, enabling true storage multitasking, delivering a buffering "offload engine" that instantly frees incoming channels and cache from any latency issues, and implementing an intelligent optimising engine that manages and directs requests for cache resources dynamically. Fault tolerance and redundancy are provided by using highly sophisticated, multi-bit error detection processes.
Another industry first, the internal 12-Port Fibre Channel Director - code-named "Spider" - provides greatly enhanced open systems connectivity with six times more direct host connections - up to 96 - to a single Symmetrix unit. This level of port density is at least three times that of other enterprise storage products. This new technology lowers total cost of ownership through integrated management and support within the Symmetrix system, faster implementation, greater flexibility in host connectivity options, server consolidation and space savings. The 12-Port Fibre Channel Director is an ideal storage consolidation solution for customers who need a large number of server connections.
EMC also introduced the 4-Port Fibre Channel Director, designed for customers with a smaller number of servers who need high availability direct attachment to Symmetrix enterprise storage systems. Along with the new Symmetrix models, EMC has expanded the use of 181GB disk drives for general purpose use in all Symmetrix storage system applications. In open systems and mainframe environments, the 181GB disks provide equivalent performance and throughput when compared to 73GB disk drives for a wide range of applications. With this new capacity (69.5TB), EMC provides a price/performance leadership to enable customers to keep more information available for mission critical applications than ever before.
Significant enhancements to the Symmetrix information storage system for mainframe environments (see separate release) include:
FICON Channel Director: Supporting native FICON channel connectivity for the Symmetrix 8000 family;
GDPS Support: Enabling customers to implement IBM`s proprietary Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex (GDPS) mainframe clustering solution using Symmetrix and SRDF;
Dynamic Parallel Access Volumes and Multiple Allegiance: EMC`s support of the PAV/MA throughput-enhancing feature; and
OS/390 volumes in RAID-10 Configuration: Delivering a mainframe industry-first.
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