EMC Adds Disaster Recovery to Low-End Storage Line

EMC Corp. is adding high-end disaster-recovery capability toits low-end storage server line. Also, later this year EMCwill ship switch technology that will let customers accessEMC Symmetrix storage and other vendors' storage from thesame server.

EMC Celerra File Server version 2.0 is a network-attachedstorage system that interacts with EMC's high-end Symmetrixstorage server line across long distances. New in version2.0 of Celerra File Server, which is available now for$307,000, is the ability to store and move Unix and WindowsNT files simultaneously. Also, Celerra File Server 2.0supports EMC's disaster-recovery feature, the SymmetrixRemote Data Facility. SRDF, which lets customers maintaincopies of data without shutting down the system, waspreviously available only on Symmetrix servers.

Celerra's price point gives users cheaper alternatives fordisaster recovery. "Now many more organizations can havedisaster tolerance between remote Celerra devices and theSymmetrix mother ship," says Brad Day, a senior analyst withGiga Information Group. "Customers don't have to pay apremium for strategic IT capabilities."

Customers will benefit further by year's end when, EMC says,a single server will interact with data stored on Symmetrix,Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems storage devicesvia the EMC Connectrix switch. EMC, through its McDataswitch-manufacturing subsidiary, is testing interoperabilityamong all these storage systems. "Any storage systemcompliant with Fibre Channel standards will be able toconnect to our [Symmetrix-based] Enterprise Storage Networkthrough Connectrix," says Jim Rothnie, EMC's senior VP andchief marketing technical officer.