News
EMC Implements IP-Capable Remote Data Facilities
- By Scott Bekker
- February 08, 2000
EMC Corp., in an unprecedented move, has introduced IP support in its data replication and information protection software, Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF).
SRDF Over IP will enable the automatic replication of files, databases, and applications between geographically separated EMC (www.emc.com) Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems over secure, ubiquitous IP networks. While IP networks are the standard in most large enterprises, ATM networks have largely served as the protocol for remote data storage and mirroring. However, the implementation of SRDF Over IP circumvents the high costs of ATM networks, as the per-circuit-mile charges and T3 or E3 connections are not present with an IP network.
Industry analysts Zona Research (www.zonaresearch.com) believe that it is this drastic lowering of costs as well as the considerable amount of time saved in the implementation of an IP data warehouse, that will position EMC in the forefront of the network attached storage (NAS) market. Already, Excite@Home has used SRDF Over IP to mirror more than one terabyte of data between Symmetrix systems on both coasts. Additionally, Marc Andressen's new startup has indicated that it will use SRDF Over IP as the basis for a new application service provider (ASP) data storage service.
SRDF Over IP is the product of a technology alliance between EMC and CNT Corp. (www.cnt.com) of Minneapolis, a provider of storage networking. -- Isaac Slepner
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.