One of EMC’s top priorities for 2014 is to continue helping its customers solve today’s infrastructure problems while building a bridge across the chasm from 2nd Platform computing to what’s become known as 3rd Platform computing – the IT destination designed for cloud, mobility, social networking and big data.
As a direct result, EMC has introduced an all-new version of the storage resource management (SRM) Suite (version 3.0), as well as enhancements and updates to the ViPR Software-Defined Storage platform (version 1.1).
Servaas Venter, country manager of EMC Southern Africa, says: “Given the complexity of today’s IT environments, this demands a long-term product strategy focused not just on one-off innovations, but also on regular product improvements to ensure we support the latest platforms, standards and architectures. And we’re doing this before customers need a lifeline; we’re at the beginning of the journey to the 3rd Platform.”
While 3rd Platform business opportunities promise to transform the face of IT by bringing Web-scale services to the masses, many customers find themselves with existing IT infrastructures that have historically been designed for 2nd Platform environments (such as client/server). These customers lack the resources they feel are necessary to bridge the gap between the 2nd and 3rd Platforms.
EMC has the solution. Together, SRM Suite 3.0 and ViPR 1.1 provide customers with the tools necessary to optimise and reduce the costs associated with their 2nd Platform environment and also provide a simple path to the future.
EMC has completely redesigned the SRM Suite, delivering new product capabilities that include:
* Deep insight and visualisation for managing multi-vendor storage environments through a simplified, common user interface;
* Seamless integration with ViPR so that customers have one management framework that transcends both their traditional and software-defined environments; and
* Support for EMC Data Protection Advisor, enabling replication and analysis capabilities across the entire infrastructure to ensure that data can be protected and recovered across any application environments while maintaining compliance with data replication policies.
A one-of-a-kind Software-Defined Storage solution, EMC ViPR is a lightweight, software-only product that transforms existing storage into a simple, extensible and open platform, drastically lowering the costs associated with existing environments and providing a path to the 3rd Platform.
With ViPR 1.1, EMC is enhancing the object capabilities of ViPR with a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) Data Service. Customers can now deploy HDFS across existing files from any ViPR supported platform, turning existing storage infrastructure into a big data repository and extending Hadoop analytics to all ViPR-managed data.
EMC has also incorporated support for the EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF), delivering remote replication in mission-critical environments under ViPR management.
Best of all, ViPR is now available as a free download. Find it here. This means that customers can get ViPR Controller 1.0 with ViPR SolutionPack 1.1 and Watch4net 6.2 at no charge for non-commercial use, with no time limit. The ViPR software download will be updated periodically as new versions become available.
In addition, the new EMC ViPR Community is now available. For the first time, customers can download ViPR and access ViPR documentation, user guides, FAQs and training – all in one place. They can also join Community user discussions to learn more about ViPR and maximise their ViPR download experience.
“Today’s one-two punch introducing SRM Suite 3.0 and ViPR 1.1 is just the start as EMC helps customers embark on their journey to the 3rd Platform. EMC will be here to assist customers every step of the way as they mind the gap,” Venter says.