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EMC Unveils New Storage Architecture

EMC has introduced a high-end line of Symmetrix storage products based on a building block design that can start small and scale up to support the largest virtual data center infrastructures, aiming to do for storage what VMware has done for enterprise servers. EMC’s new Symmetrix V-Max and V-Max SE storage arrays are based on […]

Written By: Sharon Linsenbach

Apr 14, 2009

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EMC has introduced a high-end line of Symmetrix
storage products based on a building block design that can start small and
scale up to support the largest virtual data center infrastructures, aiming to
do for storage what VMware has done for enterprise servers.

EMC’s new Symmetrix V-Max and V-Max SE
storage arrays are based on a Virtual Matrix Architecture that EMC
said can scale up to hundreds of thousands of terabytes of storage, and is
capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of virtual machines.

V-Max and V-Max SE are designed for large enterprise data centers and server
virtualization deployments in which storage workloads must adapt to changing
demand and must be moved between various storage platforms. The V-Max product
line also includes Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST),
the ability to automatically tier data based on real-time user access
requirements, its life cycle, regulatory compliance and disaster recovery
needs, EMC says.

The Virtual Matrix Architecture is made up of blocks of V-Max engines, which
contain all the necessary disk and I/O ports along with multiple quad-core
Intel processors, up to 128GB of memory and EMC’s
Engenuity storage operating system.

Traditional storage arrays, on the other hand, typically require customers
to source and manage separate components such as motherboards and host bus
adapters, according to EMC statements.

To scale up, customers simply add in another V-Max engine with its
associated flash, Fibre Channel or serial ATA storage. Each Symmetrix frame can
fit up to eight V-Max engines, for a total 1 terabyte of memory and twice the
front-end and back-end connections supported by EMC’s
current high-end DMX-4 systems, according to EMC.

An entry-level V-Max SE costs up to 10 percent less than a DMX-4, but offers
significantly more performance thanks to the use of quad-core Intel processors
and other changes such as enhancements to Engenuity, EMC’s
storage operating system.

The Symmetrix V-Max product will co-exist with the current Direct Matrix
Architecture (DMX-4) Symmetrix, and there are no end-of-life plans for the
DMX-4 in the near future, EMC says.

V-Max, EMC says, will offer a high degree
of self-management, enabling solution providers and storage administrators to
manage much more storage capacity than before, as well as cut down on
customers’ energy costs. EMC also says the
solution will integrate seamlessly with virtual server and data center
management policies customers already have in place.

EMC notes that while competitors such as
Hitachi Data Systems and IBM have continued
to use their USP and DS8000 high-end storage array architectures, it has raised
the bar with its latest two storage architectures, the DMX-4 and now V-Max. It
says this demonstrates the storage giant’s commitment to innovation and its
attention to solution providers and their customers’ high-end storage needs.

EMC Chairman and CEO
Joe Tucci called V-Max "the biggest breakthrough in new high-end storage
design in nearly two decades."

EMC Unveils New Storage Architecture

Sharon Linsenbach

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