Features - Storage Innovations:

EMC INTRODUCES DatabaseXtender SOFTWARE SUITE

EMC Corp, a world leader in information storage and management, announced the EMC DatabaseXtender software suite, powerful new information management software designed for application environments. Available immediately, DatabaseXtender gives organizations the ability to monitor database growth and usage, and intelligently identify and relocate inactive data to various storage tiers as its value and service level requirements change, thereby improving database performance and reducing costs. DatabaseXtender works within existing heterogeneous storage infrastructures, and serves as core technology for implementing an information lifecycle management strategy for structured data.

In related news, EMC and Oracle Consulting today announced worldwide availability of an EMC Proven information lifecycle management solution for Oracle databases that combines the EMC DatabaseXtender software with joint services from the two companies.

As database-resident information -- or "structured data" -- continues to more than double every year, organizations are looking for a scalable long-term solution for maintaining acceptable and predictable application performance levels, while also keeping infrastructure costs within budget. By employing an information lifecycle management approach to managing structured data growth, and utilizing EMC's DatabaseXtender software suite as core technology, organizations are able to better utilize their existing heterogeneous infrastructure and meet their changing business objectives.

Mark Lewis, EMC's executive vice president of Open Software, said, "Information in the database -- like all information -- changes in value over time. Yet, most database environments today are filled with inactive or historical data that no longer has the same service level requirements it did when first created. The DatabaseXtender suite helps organizations manage their structured data growth throughout its lifecycle by identifying and relocating data to more cost-effective storage tiers as its value changes."

Mike Sink, IT operations manager at Kichler Lighting, said, "One of the major appeals of the DatabaseXtender suite is its ability to work within our existing storage infrastructure. Oftentimes, solutions require you to rip and replace major components of your existing infrastructure in order to begin realizing benefits. DatabaseXtender's heterogeneous support ensures that infrastructure investments will be protected."

The EMC DatabaseXtender software suite includes:

• DatabaseXtender Analyzer -- proactively monitors and analyzes the growth patterns and performance of database applications. With DatabaseXtender Analyzer, administrators are able to set data retention policies across their database environments.
• DatabaseXtender Optimizer -- identifies and relocates inactive data from the production database and storage system to a secondary database instance and storage system, while maintaining transparent online access through the native application. As a result, inactive data no longer taxes the performance of the production database and does not take up capacity on the primary storage system.
• DatabaseXtender Archiver -- archives aged data from the online environment (i.e. the production database or the secondary Optimizer database instance) and stores it on an archival system, such as ATA-based storage, content addressed storage (CAS) or tape. This archived data often must be kept for long periods of time for compliance purposes. Archiver stores this structured data in an open XML file format, while maintaining its relational integrity, so the data is assured to be accessible over time, regardless of technology obsolescence.
• DatabaseXtender Subsetter -- generates fully functional and operational subset copies of the production database for test, development, data mining and reporting purposes, where full copies are not required.

Each product in the DatabaseXtender suite can be purchased individually or together as part of an information lifecycle management solution for structured data. DatabaseXtender Analyzer, Optimizer and Subsetter are available immediately. DatabaseXtender Archiver will be available by midyear.

About EMC

EMC Corp is the world leader in products, services and solutions for information storage and management that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.