EMC has added some high-end features to its fast-selling midrange Clariion storage systems and software.
Topping the list is the Hopkinton, Mass.-based vendor’s new UltraPoint Technology, which offers point-to-point disk array enclosures and drive-level fault detection, isolation and diagnosis, giving the systems greater reliability, availability and scalability. UltraPoint is backwards-compatible with previous versions of the Clariion CX series. The new technology is featured in the new Clariion CX300-s, CX500-s and CX700-s Fibre Channel and iSCSI models.
Also new is virtual LUNtechnology that lets users move data within a Clariion system to boost performance and capacity utilization without disruption, and DC power capabilities have been added for mobile and remote environments.
EMC also unveiled four new Clariion Disk Library models that offer improved performance and can scale up to 348 terabytes of capacity.
“As big as we can build them, people keep asking for more,” said Barry Ader, EMC’s senior director of Clariion marketing. “We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth as customers look for faster backup.”
Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at the Taneja Group, said Clariion “continues to lend itself to functional and capacity enhancements that reveal its architectural strength. This is what makes it one of the strongest players in the midrange market.”
EMC also added a number of new software features. The SnapView and MirrorView/S replication products can now support up to twice as many LUNs, and both also offer greater consistency across volumes.
SAN Copy/E offers improved data mobility between Clariion AX100 and CX300 arrays and larger CX systems, and Navisphere Manager offers centralized management for both AX100 and CX series systems from a single Web-based management console.
The products will become generally available over the next couple of months, and Dell plans to offer Clariion UltraPoint Technology under the Dell-EMC brand in September. The announcements come a day before EMC’s annual meeting with Wall Street analysts.