EMC gives Symmetrix V-Max a boost

By Beth Pariseau | Dec 22, 2009

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EMC Corp. today launched a series of upgrades for its Symmetrix V-Max enterprise storage arrays, including greater thin provisioning capabilities, support for 8 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) and FICON, and new bulk data storage configurations.

Thin provisioning updates

EMC made upgrades to its Virtual Provisioning software for Symmetrix arrays as well as the Symmetrix replication software. EMC added Zero Page Reclaim, which collects "white spaces" left in thin provisioned volumes for repurposing as a contiguous block of storage elsewhere in the disk array.

Bob Wambach, EMC's senior director of enterprise storage, said this could also help customers upgrade their arrays more efficiently. "It could drive customers to accelerate technology refreshes, focused on taking capacity back," he said. "If you budget for a one-to-one replacement of 200 terabytes, for example, you might recover 50 terabytes for future growth."

The feature sounds similar to Symantec Corp.'s Thin Reclamation API. Symantec reps said all major data storage vendors are supporting its API, and IBM and 3PAR Inc. have released integrated products. But Wambach said EMC developed its Zero Page Reclaim on its own.

V-Max previously supported wide striping as part of Virtual Provisioning, but now new capacity added to the data storage pool can trigger the disk array to automatically restripe data across all drives.

Some analysts see these features as playing catch-up with competitor 3PAR, which has offered thin provisioning and similar additional software features like automated wide-striping on its arrays for years. "3PAR is nipping at the heels of the tier one guys," said Wikibon founder and analyst David Vellante. "EMC's got to be brain dead not to know that."

However, Vellante added, "it's all good stuff, and it's not easy to add."

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