EMC, Dell Introduce Midrange 10G Ethernet Arrays
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EMC powers up its midrange Clariion storage arrays with 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and makes the line's software more VMware-friendly. Dell is also selling the new Clariion arrays and is adding new services to go with its own branded Clariion arrays.
EMC and Dell, like peas in a pod when it
comes to disk-based enterprise storage, came out with connected announcements
Aug. 25.
Item No.1: EMC has powered up its midrange
Clariion storage arrays for 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and made the
product line's software more VMware-friendly. This is logical, considering that
EMC owns VMware.
Clariion arrays, aimed and priced at the midrange business market, are looking
and acting more and more like the powerful high-end EMC
Symmetrix arrays stationed in huge data centers.
EMC has increased scalability for Clariion
VMware deployments by enabling customers to attach up to eight times more
virtual machines to a single array. EMC
claims the added bandwidth and the ability to support thousands of virtual
servers is more efficient for VMware customers because the combination of these
features allows more consolidation into a single box.
EMC also said a new replication manager will
be made available later in 2009, and the new Clariion arrays will be available
in the third quarter. Go here for more
information.
Item No. 2: Dell, which sells EMC Clariion
CX4 arrays under joint branding, will also be selling CX4 arrays with that 10 Gigabit
Ethernet connectivity. The upgrade amounts to a full-fledged storage platform
that includes UltraFlex Modular I/O, dual-mode arrays that can connect to 8G-bit
and 4G-bit Fibre Channel, along with 10G-bit and 1G-bit iSCSI ports.
Basically, the Dell Clariion arrays are designed to plug into virtually any
data center connectivity setup.
The company also said it will provide a key green IT feature-hard disk drive
"spin-down"-as a standard control in the CX4s within a few weeks.
Drive spin-down enables storage administrators to save electrical power by setting
time schedules for drives to power down when not in use.
EMC's virtualization-aware Navisphere
management software is included in the CX4 package. This is where the spin-down
controls are located, along with storage distribution automation controls.
Dell, which has been investing in its consulting services ever since it decided
to move heavily into enterprise storage about three years ago, has added some
new services.
Dell's ProConsult services, offered in cooperation with EMC,
now can provide customers with "action-oriented plans" for optimized
storage environments. ProConsult Storage Consolidation Solutions include Dell/EMC
SAN Solution Design Services-which in turn includes
optional backup protection, such as Dell/EMC
Local Data Protection Design and Dell/EMC
Remote Data Protection Design-and Dell/EMC
Back-Up Integration Design.
Ethernet-currently 1G and 4G capacities are fairly standard in data centers-is
increasingly being used as the connectivity venue for storage as enterprises
continue to consolidate their physical servers and arrays and virtualize their
systems.
For more information on Dell's announcement, go
here.
Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
