EMC turns to flash for enterprise storage

EMC has released the next generation of its Celerra storage systems, which include the option of Flash drives.

The NS-120 and NS-480 Celerra systems are upgrades of previous systems, while the NS-960 is an entirely new offering. All feature integrated network attached storage (NAS) in addition to iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity, and can be scaled up to 960 disk drives. EMC also announced the new Celerra NS-G8 Gateway system.

EMC boasted that its new Celerra NS models offer built-in features which other firms see as add-on products, including deduplication with compression, IP storage replication, automated volume management and thin provisioning, in addition to optimised storage tiering.

Brad Bunce, EMC's director of IP storage marketing, told IT PRO that these features can help firms keep costs down. "These features help drive down costs and be more efficient," he said. "Deduplication cuts capacity required by 50 per cent."

EMC claimed to be the first to offer flash drives in a NAS environment, which EMC said offers an 800 per cent performance boost in addition to a 98 per cent increase in energy efficiency.

"Customers can have flash drives alongside other drive types," Bunce explained, adding the system is ideal in a virtualised environment. "Whether the environment is virtualised or standard, all environments benefit with enterprise flash drives."

EMC also boasted that the systems offer a 22 per cent lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than comparable solutions on the market, calculated over a three-year period on hardware and software.

The Celerra NS-120, NS-480, NS-960 and the Gateway NS-G8 will all be available in early March.

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