Hot on the tails of the introduction of the DSSD D5 and VMAX All Flash, EMC has announced new features for its VMAX and Disk Library for mainframe storage products. VMAX support for mainframe (VMAX3 and the new VMAX All Flash products) allows their customers to modernize, automate and consolidate disparate data center technologies through a simplified, high-performance and trusted data services platform. EMC indicates that the VMAX family now boasts double the processing power while using only a third of the footprint for mainframe customers. In addition, EMC has unveiled Data Protector for z Systems (zDP), which is touted as the first-to-market scale-out automated snapshot solution for mainframe storage, as well as updates to its EMC Disk Library for mainframe technology with DLm4.4.
EMC has announced new features for its EMC VMAX and EMC Disk Library for mainframe storage products. VMAX support for mainframe (VMAX3 and the new VMAX All Flash products) allows their customers to modernize, automate and consolidate disparate data center technologies through a simplified, high-performance and trusted data services platform. EMC indicates that the VMAX family now boasts double the processing power while using only a third of the footprint for mainframe customers. In addition, EMC has unveiled Data Protector for z Systems (zDP), which is touted as the first-to-market scale-out automated snapshot solution for mainframe storage, as well as updates to its EMC Disk Library for mainframe technology with DLm4.4.
Because it leverages dense array packaging, processor cores and power efficiency, EMC claims that VMAX3 needs 40% less floor space, 23% less cooling and 21% less power than its leading competition. EMC has also stated that it will be extending its Service Level Objective (SLO)-based storage tiering functionality of its VMAX3 range of products to now support mainframe. EMC indicates that this will simplify data management of the entire mainframe by automating tiering to predefined service levels based on response time demands for data.
zDP technology gives VMAX All Flash and VMAX3 the ability to create snapshots at regular intervals. This means that mainframe admins do not have to rely on a restore from their Business Continuance Volume (BCV) ‘gold copy’ file when data corruption occurs. EMC adds that zDP is designed to take a snapshot (as much as) every 10 minutes, which helps to lessen mainframe Recovery Point Objectives by up to 144x.
Lastly, DLm 4.4 creates a grand view of two virtual tape systems, allowing each to read from, write to, and update the other, to improve overall availability. It also gives businesses the ability to site-swap between geographically distributed pairs of EMC DLms, switching use from production storage to protection storage for prolonged periods of time. EMC asserts that, when used with the EMC Data Domain 9500, DLm 4.4 will boast four times the capacity of its competition, which will result in a much lower Total Cost of Ownership.
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