EMC Introduces New Hardware, Software In Move To Better Integrate Data Protection Lines

EMC on Wednesday introduced an across-the-board upgrade of its data protection software, hardware and services, with an emphasis on integrating the capabilities of what has traditionally been a hodgepodge of disparate technologies.

The enhancements to its data protection lineup include four new models of its Data Domain backup storage appliances; NAS and Data Domain support for its Avamar deduplication backup software; improved integration of its Networker data protection software with other EMC storage systems; and business-friendly enhancements to its Mozy cloud backup service.

The new data protection enhancements continue a move by EMC to better integrate its product lines, including a May move to integrate its Isilon scale-out NAS platform with Syncplicity file share and sync capabilities.

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EMC fundamentally believes that even now customers are still challenged when it comes to protecting and recovering their data, said Rob Emsley, senior director of product marketing for the Hopkinton, Mass.-based storage giant.

"And we believe that if backup and recovery is not fixed, customers run the risk of lost productivity, lost revenue and lost customer confidence," Emsley said.

EMC's solution to the data protection challenge is to move toward offering data protection as a service, Emsley said. That includes consolidating production storage into easily managed pools, integrating data protection across virtual and physical environments, and offering data management services.

"We're producing a solution with our products to allow customers to offer our data protection products as a service, and to leverage them in a consolidated way," he said.

The move by EMC to consolidate and integrate its data protection product lines is part of a normal progression in solution development, said Jamie Shepard, regional vice president at Lumenate, a Dallas-based solution provider and EMC partner.

"EMC is creating a vision for how to protect data," Shepard said. "It's bringing a bunch of products together with simpler interfaces and easier integration."

The move makes it easier for EMC customers to get more value from the vendor's hardware and software, Shepard said. For instance, a customer using Avamar software can now easily connect it to a Data Domain appliance for expanded data protection.

"Everything is coming together," he said. "This is awesome stuff. People have for years complained that EMC's stuff is not related, and that EMC is not bringing it together."

NEXT: New EMC Data Protection Hardware, Software, Services

On the hardware side, EMC on Wednesday unveiled four new models in its Data Domain backup and deduplication appliance line that Emsley said offer up to four times the performance, 10 times the scalability, three times the number of backup streams, and 38 percent lower cost on a dollar-per-gigabyte base compared to its earlier models.

The new models, which either now use, or will shortly use, the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, include the DD2500, with 5.3-TB-per-hour backups and useable capacity of up to 133 TB; the DD4200, with 10.2-TB-per-hour backups and useable capacity of up to 189 TB; the DD4500, with 10.2-TB-per-hour backups and useable capacity of up to 428 TB; and the DD7200, with 15.0-TB-per-hour backups and useable capacity of up to 570 TB.

With EMC's DD Boost technology, the backup rate more than doubles, Emsley said. Furthermore, capacity of the DD4200, DD4500 and DD7200 can be more than tripled with the optional DD Extended Retention software option, he said.

The DD2500 replaces the company's DD640; the DD4200 replaces the DD670; the DD4500 replaces the DD860; and the DD7200 replaces the DD890, he said.

EMC's Data Domain line also now supports direct backups from SAP HANA appliances, and directly supports high-performance backups from Oracle Exadata and SAP on Oracle using DD Boost software.

EMC also expanded support for more than 20 archiving applications from other vendors, including archrival Dell and its Quest software line.

On the software side, EMC's Avamar 7 deduplication data protection software now adds support for file system and NAS/NDMP backups, and supports all major data center workloads targeted at Data Domain systems, Emsley said.

Avamar also now supports deduplication and high-speed backups to EMC's Isilon storage systems. In addition, it includes support for the native VMware vSphere web client to give vSphere web clients full control over the Avamar deployment in VMware environments, he said.

EMC also introduced NetWorker 8.1, a new version of its data protection software, which now includes improved snapshot management and the ability to build snapshots into a data protection strategy, Emsley said. Also new with NetWorker 8.1 is fully integrated support for Data Domain, as well as the ability to leverage Avamar technology and services in VMware environments for image-level backups and recovery, Emsley said.

Further, EMC has enhanced its Mozy cloud-based data protection offering with Active Directory support, the introduction of storage pooling, and a new keyless activation capability that lets customers more quickly provision new accounts.

PUBLISHED JULY 10, 2013