EMC unveils a 'future-proofed' Symmetrix
EMC unveils a 'future-proofed' Symmetrix
More power, capacity and throughput, yet all in a smaller space - those are three of the claimed enhancements to the new Symmetrix hard disk-based storage systems.
Unveiled by EMC's CEO Joe Tucci, the company's flagship RAID storage systems feature new architecture which provides "future-proofing" for at least five to 10 years, EMC's Australia/New Zealand product marketing manager Mark Heers told Image & Data Manager just prior to the official release.
One of the most significant improvements is in terms of the system's theoretical bandwidth or throughput. The previous maximum was 10 gigabits per second - the latest MX series offers 64Gb/s.
While the Symmetrix has always been directed at high-end, mission-critical storage applications within large enterprises, Mr Heers believes the new Symmetrix offers enough flexibility in configuration to attract the medium-size enterprise customers, traditionally served by EMC's Clariion line.
The new Symmetrix line is available in three models: the DMX-800, a single-bay system offering two terabytes in standard form, the DMX-1000 and the DMX-2000, offering up to 40TB raw capacity.
The DMX ("direct matrix") line all use the same 73GB and 146GB drives that are also used in the Clariion. "They're not dramatically different from a component viewpoint," Mr Heers said. Where they differ is in performance, such as responsiveness, data access times and burst performance, he said.
The Symmetrix is suitable for zero backup window environments, where there is no downtime allowable for databases which must remain online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This also means an improvement in business continuity performance for disaster recovery.
He said the Symmetrix offers varying levels of redundancy, from 100 per cent dynamic mirroring, which effectively halves the raw capacity, through to the more commonly-used parity RAID approach which makes 87 per cent of the raw data space available. Mr Heers said that parity RAID is suitable for 95 per cent of all applications, with the most demanding applications working on a 3:1 ratio, which costs 25 per cent of the raw space.
But it's the internal bandwidth of the Symmetrix - due to its new internal "direct matrix" architecture - which is the biggest breakthrough. This should allow enterprise users to continue to use their systems for several years into the future and replace the drives as capacities increase.
Although it has more throughput and capacity, the new Symmetrix line has been shrunk. "In the past when buying high-end storage, you've had to buy the refrigerator packaging," Mr Heers said. Not any more, it seems. The DMX-800, for example, is designed for standard rack units but is only 30cm deep, yet it offers 2TB of raw data storage.
The smaller space should make the new Symmetrix more attractive to restricted spaces and to medium-size enterprises, he added.
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