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EMC to Introduce Upgrades to Its High-End Data Storage Devices

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 30--Just six months after introducing its Symmetrix DMX high-end data storage devices, Hopkinton's EMC Corp. today will announce a horde of major upgrades to the product line.

The world's top producer of large data storage systems introduced its Symmetrix DMX systems in February, claiming the machines' new data management architecture made them faster than rival products from IBM Corp. and Hitachi Data Systems. Strong sales of the DMX systems helped EMC post second-quarter net income of $82 million, compared to just $1 million last year.

Now EMC is rolling out two new Symmetrix DMX products. At the entry level, EMC will offer the DMX800 system with up to 17 terabytes of storage and a starting price of $284,000 -- 30 percent less than EMC's previous low-priced product. It will also offer the top-line DMX3000, starting at $1.7 million and with a maximum data capacity of 84 gigabytes -- twice the size of its predecessor.

EMC said the new systems will be able to connect to computer networks using a low-cost interface called iSCSI, as an alternative to the more expensive Fibre Channel technology commonly used with high-end storage devices. Adding iSCSI compatibility will reduce the cost of upgrading to Symmetrix hardware, said Chuck Hollis, EMC's vice president of storage platform marketing.

In addition, EMC will offer an operating system improvement that will let users upgrade the storage software and hardware without disrupting ongoing business operations. Hollis said the process is "analogous to doing brain surgery while you're taking the SAT."

Another new software product will permit reliable low-cost data replication between storage systems located thousands of miles apart.

And EMC will offer new software features to make Symmetrix products more compatible with IBM mainframe computers.

In recent months, EMC has aggressively targeted medium-sized businesses, because it expects relatively slow growth in sales to the Fortune 500-sized companies that are EMC's core market. But Hollis said the new products underscore EMC's commitment to the top tier of the market. "EMC continues to think high-end storage is an attractive opportunity and continues to invest," he said.

Steve Duplessie, senior analyst at Enterprise Storage Group Inc. in Milford, said the new Symmetrix hardware should give EMC a significant competitive advantage. Duplessie said that a user of EMC's low-cost Clariion products can upgrade them to Symmetrix DMX systems by swapping out a disk controller module. Duplessie also said the flood of new product announcements represents an effort by EMC to cement its domination of the high-end storage market.

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