The exec told Byte and Switch that he already uses an EMC AX100 device within his SAN infrastructure, although this is almost full to its 3-Tbyte Fibre Channel capacity.
The NX Series being able to mix [SAS and] SATA drives and give iSCSI connectivity would let me use different types of drives, he says, adding that his familiarity with EMCs AX product line is another point in the NX4s favor.
At least one analyst thinks that the NX4 represents a step in the right direction for EMC, particularly at a time when the worlds of SMB and enterprise storage are converging.
EMC has created a product thats a very powerful solution for small businesses, but is also flexible enough to support workgroup and remote office-type applications for enterprises, says Charles King principal analyst of Pund-IT Research. Obviously, it supports common small business applications like Exchange, but it also supports more business-focused applications like SQL Server, Oracle, and VMware ESX Server.
The analyst also feels that by offering different types of storage in the same array, EMC is opening SMBs up to more enterprise-type features. By being able to support SATA and SAS, a small business could use the NX4 to support tiered storage strategies in a single box, he says.