EMC News Flash

EMC Corp. unveiled its new flash technology and virtual provisioning for Symmetrix DMX-4 drives. In addition, RSA, EMC's security division, announced the interoperability of five RSA PCI Solutions in the Cisco Systems Inc. Payment Card Industry (PCI) reference architectures.

Focal Points:

• EMC is offering the first high end array that supports and is fully integrated with its Symmetrix hardware and software. The enterprise flash drives have a fibre channel interface to front end RAM cache, are designed with end-to-end error correcting code (ECC) for data integrity, and contain self-healing capabilities for reliability. The tier 0 drives are ideal for low latency, high transaction workloads, according to the company. Company executives claim a 10x response time, 30x I/Os per second, 98 percent less power per I/O, and 38 percent less power per drive for the flash drives over traditional drives. Flash drives will be generally available in mid-March 2008 and will be priced at 10 percent more than 30 15k drives.
• Also available in mid-March will be Symmetrix virtual provisioning for all tiers of DMX-3 and DMX-4 arrays. Features include automation, QoS management, local and remote replication, and reporting capabilities. EMC reports the time for provisioning and device setup is up to six times faster than with the 5771, using fewer panels and user steps. In addition, the Enginuity 5773 offering was announced for the DMX-3 and DMX-4 arrays. Enginuity provides features such as SRDF multi-site replication, mainframe HyperPAV and native flash compatibility, and native IPv6 and IPsec support.
• RSA, in collaboration with Cisco, has extended the Cisco PCI Solution for Retail Validated Network Designs, which help retailers effectively address the data security requirements mandated by the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Announced were three new RSA solutions: encryption and key management; authentication and authorization; and compliance and security information management. Consulting services are available from RSA as well. RSA Key Manager and RSA File Security Manager enable retailers to address PCI requirement 3 by securing data at all endpoints. RSA SecurID and RSA Access Manager address requirements 7 and 8 by creating tools to positively establish user identities and ensure only authorized users can get access to cardholder data. RSA enVision tracks, monitors access, and provides an audit trail of cardholder data at a central control point as well as out-of-the-box PCI compliance reports.

Experton Group believes EMC's new leading-edge flash and virtual provisioning technologies will gain rapid attraction at a majority of enterprises that are looking for transactional performance gains, energy savings, and/or virtualization solutions. IT executives at enterprises with high end storage arrays should determine if these solutions add value in their environments, understand road maps from the key players, and decide if and when use of these technologies should be brought in-house. RSA's PCI extensions close gaps in key PCI areas that have been long exposed. Retail executives using or thinking of using Cisco's PCI solution should also evaluate the RSA features for inclusion in the corporate PCI architecture.