EMC Enters the Matrix

Somebody call Keanu Reeves! EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) is gearing up for the launch of its next-generation Symmetrix next week around the theme of The Matrix -- the central feature of the system's new architecture.

The new Symmetrix family, dubbed DMX, will be positioned as offering unmatched scalability of performance. Known internally as Symmetrix 6, the DMX line uses a proprietary switched-loop architecture that EMC calls "the matrix." According to several sources, EMC says the matrix architecture provides "any-to-any" internal connectivity, with a maximum throughput of 64 GByte/s and a total of 32 concurrent I/Os possible.

"It will not be a bus or switch architecture -- it's a new design that EMC has developed," says one company insider, who requested anonymity. "It will have somewhere in the range of 64 GByte/s total bandwidth on the highest-end box."

EMC declined to comment until it announces the product on February 3 at a launch event in New York.

If its matrix architecture can actually deliver that throughput, the Symmetrix DMX would utterly shatter the top performance offered by the current leader, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS)'s Lightning 9980V, which provides a maximum of 10.6 GByte/s "user-usable bandwidth."The DMX line will be available in three models: The DMX 800, DMX 1000, and DMX 2000. The 800 is rack-mountable, while the 1000 has a one-bay configuration and the highest-end 2000 is delivered in two cabinets.

The top-of-the-line model, the DMX 2000, provides 96 Fibre Channel ports on the front end and can handle more than 8,000 host connections, according to the EMC insider. That would also eclipse the abilities of the HDS Lightning (which offers 64 FC ports and support for 4,096 hosts).

However, the maximum storage capacity the DMX 2000 will be able to provide "has jumped all over the boards," says an industry source familiar with EMC's plans. According to this source, people have been "surprised" that the maximum drive count of the DMX 2000 is around 400. Even with 146-GByte drives, that would yield a maximum capacity of 58 TBytes, or less than half what HDS Lightning 9900 V offers.

The 800, meanwhile, will be positioned as a "lower-end Symmetrix." The way EMC will explain the difference between the DMX 800 and the CX600 -- the high end of the Clariion modular storage family -- is that the 800 is based on the Symmetrix's Enginuity operating system, which means it will run Symmetrix Replication Data Facility (SRDF) replication software, and uses the full EMC ControlCenter (ECC) product suite. The CX series, by contrast, runs the Flare operating system and uses the more limited Navisphere management software. [Ed. note: Plus, the DMX 800 will probably cost double!]

All three models use the same modular, Fibre Channel-based Disk Array Enclosures (DAEs) designed for the Clariion CX family, which EMC launched last year. There's another area where the DMX provides modularity: Unlike with older Symmetrix systems, DMX customers won't have to buy all the back-end controllers up front, says an industry source. Rather, users can scale the box up as their storage needs grow.The DMX line will require customers to upgrade to ECC version 5.1.1, but this isn't expected to be a sticking point, since most existing EMC customers will get this upgrade for free.

DMX, by the way, supposedly stands for "Direct Matrix Architecture." [Ed. note: No relation, we assume, to the rapper of the same name.]

Still, analysts point out, having the biggest, fastest box in town isn't always the most compelling selling point. "Users aren't as swayed by hardware performance, since few shops have fully populated their subsystems," writes Steve Milunovich, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., in a research note. "Software functionality is more important, so support of SRDF and other software products on lower-end systems may have great appeal."

But as it's already more than a year late, EMC has high hopes riding on the DMX launch. The company has lost share in the high-end sector in the past few quarters to HDS and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) (see HDS Gains on EMC).

Wall Street analysts believe EMC will rebound quickly with the DMX. "We could see EMC getting back to grabbing more than its fair share of each customer's available environment since we expect its new approach to satisfy every level of a customer's storage needs without the slightest gap," writes Salomon Smith Barney Clint Vaughan, in a note to investors this week.As for the SRDF-over-IP blade that EMC is reportedly codeveloping with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), sources say this capability will definitely not be ready for the initial release of the DMX (see EMC Sets Symm 6 Debut).

The buzz leading up to EMC's launch of the DMX family -- this is probably as close to the Super Bowl the storage industry ever gets -- has prompted rivals to try to steal the spotlight.

HDS waited until this week to announce that it is doubling the capacity of its Lightning 9900 V series, to a maximum of 148 TBytes of raw storage and 64 Fibre Channel ports (see HDS Launches Preemptive Strike).

Meanwhile, next Monday, IBM will announce it's kicking the Shark storage system up a notch with the availability of 15,000-RPM, 73-Gbyte drives. In addition, Big Blue will announce that Shark is now compatible with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)