EMC Speeds Up Storage Connectivity

EMC has added to its high-end Symmetrix V-Max storage array 8Gb-per-second connectivity for mainframe and open systems environments.

The new capability doubles the available input/output of the previous V-Max system. The faster connectivity is expected to lead to more efficient consolidation of applications in virtualized data centers and mainframes, the storage vendor said Wednesday.

In addition, EMC has improved virtual provisioning within Symmetrix V-Max. New features include zero space reclamation, expanded support for EMC's TimeFinder/Clone software, and automated re-balancing of virtual provisioning storage pools as additional capacity is added.

Other enhancements include high-capacity system configurations built around two and four engines and software compression for EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility traffic over Fibre Channel or Gigabit Ethernet connections. Also, in addressing the growing use of flash storage, the updated Symmetrix V-Max can automatically and securely erase flash drives prior to a drive replacement to protect data.

The latest product enhancements followed on the heels of EMC announcing availability of fully automated storage tiering, or FAST, technology for Symmetrix V-Max and EMC CLARiiON networked storage systems and EMC's Celerra unified storage. FAST automates the movement of data on enterprise flash drives and SATA disk drives. EMC claims the technology, launched this month, cuts storage acquisition costs by at least 20% and trims storage operation expenses by 40%.

FAST is the company's foundation solution for integrating its storage efficiency and automation capabilities. The new automated approach works to take advantage of the growing use of enterprise flash drives, which can boost application performance by as much as 800% for active data while still exploiting the cost benefits of inexpensive high-capacity SATA drives.