Features - Storage Innovations:

EMC DELIVERS NETWORKED STORAGE BREAKTHROUGH

EMC Corp set a new industry benchmark for affordable, easy-to-use networked storage with the introduction of the EMC CLARiiON AX100. Based on a unique EMC patent-pending design and technology, the CLARiiON AX100 is a customer-installable networked storage system capable of storing up to 3TB of information with integrated functions for simple management and advanced protection. Announced in conjunction with EMC's partners, the CLARiiON AX100 extends EMC's reach into the market for small-to-medium size businesses and will be delivered primarily through distribution, reseller and OEM partners worldwide.

Easy to install, use and maintain, the CLARiiON AX100 was specifically designed as a cost-effective solution to allow customers, for the first time, to move from internal server-based disks to external direct-attached storage, SAN or NAS environments. The CLARiiON AX100 delivers new levels of storage management simplicity and automation and is the ideal solution for businesses and organizations that want to easily and effectively consolidate and protect their information assets. With a typical four-host SAN configuration requiring less than one hour to install, the CLARiiON AX100 sets the standard for easy management and fast installation.

Joe Tucci, EMC's president and CEO, said, "EMC has, by far, the most comprehensive networked storage lineup in the industry. We've taken many of the features found in our CLARiiON CX systems and have integrated them into the EMC CLARiiON AX100. This system will give our customers an entry point from which they can scale and effectively manage their information throughout its lifecycle."

Tucci continued, "Our partners helped us define a market opportunity that was being underserved. As customers realize that their current infrastructure can't support their huge information growth, our partners are in a unique position to integrate the CLARiiON AX100, a system that meets the budget needs of even the most cost-conscious customers."

Channel And Distribution Partners

Designed by EMC to be delivered through its worldwide network of channel partners, resellers and OEMs, the CLARiiON AX100 is available from Dell (available as the Dell/EMC AX100), Tech Data, Fujitsu-Siemens (available as the FibreCAT AX100), Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Hall-Mark, Bell Micro, MTI, Ideal, CDW, OpenWay, Samsung (available as the StorageMax ZCX 100), Skydata, Bull, Source and others.

Janet Waxman, vice president of systems and storage distribution channels for IDC, said, "Architected and designed principally for the channel community, the EMC CLARiiON AX100 is an innovative package of capacity and storage management functionality for first-time networked storage users. Leading with its ease-of-use characteristics and broad functionality at an aggressive price point, the CLARiiON AX100 is a compelling offering for solution providers, VARs and distributors to deliver to markets across the globe. In addition, this product will significantly help EMC's efforts to expand its suite of partners with relationships such as the recent additions of Tech Data and Samsung."

Introducing EMC CLARiiON AX100

Incorporating the unique data integrity, availability and RAID technologies from the CLARiiON CX family, the new CLARiiON AX100 delivers high-capacity, cost-effective ATA storage in a compact 2U (or 3.5-inch) rack-mountable enclosure with integrated storage management. Available in both single and dual controller configurations, all system components are customer-replaceable.

The industry's most affordable, easy-to-install networked storage system also features:

• Wizard-based storage management -- CLARiiON AX100 systems are prepackaged and fully equipped with all the functionality required for setup, management and data protection. Storage management functions range from a user-friendly interface for installation and monitoring to local space-saving snapshot replication for instant backup and recovery. The system also includes an automated path failover capability that facilitates data flow through alternate I/O channels between the server and the CLARiiON AX100, enabling continuous application availability.
• The CLARiiON AX100 offers a Web-based interface for secure and remote management of the system from any standard Internet connection.
• Affordable, customer-installable SAN and NAS -- EMC has also partnered with key storage technology suppliers to deliver a preconfigured, customer installable, entry-level SAN solution. New Fibre Channel switch and host bus adapter (HBA) products from Brocade, Emulex and QLogic feature easy setup and configuration wizards especially designed for the CLARiiON AX100 storage system.

EMC has qualified the Brocade Silkworm 3250 VL2E 8-port Fibre Channel switch as well as the Emulex LP101-E and LP982-E and QLogic QLA200-E and QLA2340-E HBAs for use with the CLARiiON AX100.

In addition, customers can deploy the CLARiiON AX100 as the direct-attached array for the new Microsoft Storage Server 2003-based NetWin 110 NAS system.

About EMC

EMC Corp is a provider of 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.