EMC Re-Architects VMAX As A ‘Data Service Platform’
EMC says the new VMAX3 storage arrays bring cloud-like agility to the data centre
Enterprise storage giant EMC has today announced the VMAX3 product family, which it calls the industry’s first open enterprise data service platform. It was designed with hybrid cloud environments in mind, and optimised for mixed workloads and flash drives.
The updated arrays take advantage of the new Hypermax OS – a blend of storage hypervisor and operating system, and Dynamic Virtual Matrix architecture, which enables IT administrators to allocate processing power where it is needed the most, in real-time.
EMC claims that, when configured with flash drives, the new software and hardware delivers 3X performance and a 50 percent reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the current generation VMAX arrays.
The announcement was made at the EMC Redefine Possible event in London, where the company also revealed the acquisition of TwinStrata, a US business which offers ‘cold’ storage in the public cloud. This capability will be eventually built into Hypermax.
Storage-as-a-Service
The VMAX3 family improves on the heritage of Symmetrix, EMC’s long-enduring line of storage arrays which was credited for the company’s rapid growth in the nineties.
The latest iteration includes three arrays: the 100K, 200K and 400K. All three promise the traditional 99.9999 percent availability, single-click provisioning and integration with EMC ViPR software-defined storage platform.
The new arrays offer impressive storage density – up to 720 drives and a complete VMAX3 engine on a single floor tile. That’s up to 660K IOPS in a single rack, bound to be popular in environments where space is at a premium.
HYPERMAX OS enables VMAX3 to embed storage infrastructure services like cloud access, replication and backup directly on the array itself, reducing footprint and energy requirements.
Meanwhile the Dynamic Virtual Matrix architecture enables administrators to allocate the processing power of up to 384 Intel Ivy Bridge cores on-the-fly, to ensure predictable service levels at scale.
“The re-architecture of VMAX3 – from enterprise storage to an open enterprise data service platform – delivers customers the ability to transform a traditional storage infrastructure to an agile data centre infrastructure,” said Brian Gallagher, president of the Enterprise and Midrange Systems division at EMC.
“Simply put, it’s hyper-consolidation for existing workloads, and their underlying infrastructure. As the first open enterprise data service platform, VMAX3 is the foundation for hybrid cloud as customers look to deliver Storage-as-a-Service with simple, policy-based service levels.”
VMAX3 systems are expected to appear on sale in the third quarter of 2014.
EMC ProtectPoint, a new data protection solution which enables direct backup from primary storage to an EMC Data Domain system, eliminating app server overhead, will be available in the fourth quarter of 2014 for additional license fees.
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