EMC vastly expands system's storage capacity
Major upgrade for Symmetrix
EMC Corp. of Hopkinton is unveiling a major upgrade to its flagship Symmetrix data storage machines that will massively expand the amount of information customers can store and manage.
"This is the most significant Symmetrix announcement since we introduced the product way back in 1990," said David Donatelli, president of EMC's storage division.
It's also a reflection of EMC's commitment to virtualization, a technology that allows multiple server computers or data storage systems to be managed as if they were one machine. VMware, a California company in which EMC owns a majority stake, is the leading provider of software for virtualizing servers. EMC's new technology is supposed to deliver the same flexibility to data storage systems, allowing large businesses or government agencies to add vast amounts of new storage as needed.
"Our technical guys have already ripped the thing apart and been wildly impressed by its capabilities," said Steve Duplessie, a senior storage analyst at consulting firm Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford.
The V-Max system will be capable of managing up to 2,400 data drives, with a usable capacity of 2 petabytes, more than 2 million gigabytes. It will use 20 percent less electrical power than previous Symmetrix systems, which can store a maximum of 615,000 gigabytes. V-Max systems can be interconnected, letting a customer build data centers storing thousands of petabytes of data on hundreds of thousands of drives, yet allowing a server computer to see it all as one large pool of data. "You don't have to deal with a thousand boxes, you just have to deal with one," Duplessie said.
In addition, the new system will support three storage technologies: flash memory chips for extremely fast data access, Fibre Channel high-speed mechanical hard drives, and slower hard drives similar to those found in desktop computers. Data are automatically routed to the most cost-efficient kind of storage. Information that is used frequently is kept on flash drives, while less vital data are stored on the slower mechanical hard drives. "I think this is going to speed the movement to more flash memory technology and greater usage," said Donatelli.
The new Symmetrix V-Max storage system goes on sale today, starting at $250,000 for a basic version. It was designed by EMC workers in Massachusetts and will be built here, where EMC employs about 9,000.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 