• Press Release

    February 29, 2016

    EMC Revolutionizes the Mainframe Through New Innovations in EMC VMAX and EMC Disk Library

    EMC Showcases New Mainframe Capabilities at SHARE 2016

    Story Highlights

    • New VMAX All Flash delivers industry-leading mainframe support
    • EMC VMAX3 automated storage performance extended to mainframe environments, helping reduce total cost of ownership and simplify operations
    • Industry’s first-to-market on-array, automated snapshot protection for mainframe environments added to VMAX3 and VMAX All Flash
    • EMC Disk Library for Mainframe removes data silos through new holistic views across production and disaster recovery virtual tape libraries

    Connect with EMC

    San Antonio - February 29, 2016 -

    EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced new capabilities for its EMC® VMAX® and EMC® Disk Library for mainframe storage products. With VMAX support for mainframe, in both the VMAX3™ and the new VMAX® All Flash products, customers can modernize, automate and consolidate disparate data center technologies within a simplified, high-performance and trusted data services platform. The additional capabilities of VMAX3 extend its industry-leading automated performance tiering functionality to the mainframe. The VMAX family now offers twice the processing power in a third of the footprinti for mainframe customers. Modernizing data protection for the mainframe, EMC is announcing the first-to-market scale-out automated snapshot solution for mainframe storage, called zDP (Data Protector for z Systems).

    EMC is also announcing updates to its EMC Disk Library for mainframe (DLm) technology. The new DLm4.4 breaks down data siloes associated with disk libraries by creating an all-encompassing view of two virtual tape systems with the ability to read from, write to and update the other. 

    Mainframes continue to power critical workloads at a number of large enterprises, including support for Third Platform mobile applications that drive substantial data traffic back to mainframes, increasing demands on storage as well as pushing the limits of physical mainframe tape systems. EMC has continued to innovate its primary storage and data protection solutions, adapting specific features designed to enhance mainframe operations helping to ensure maximum performance, availability and reliability.

    Performance Optimization and Simplification
    With VMAX support for mainframe, EMC is changing the game for mainframe storage performance. With dense array packaging, processor cores and efficient use of power, the VMAX3 requires 40% less floor space, 23% less cooling and 21% less power than its closest mainframe storage competitorii, resulting in the industry’s best total cost of ownership.

    EMC is extending its Service Level Objective (SLO)-based storage tiering functionality across the VMAX3 range of products to now support mainframe. It is designed to simplify data management across the mainframe, automating tiering to pre-defined service levels based on response time demands for data. The new VMAX All Flash further simplifies the equation to a single service level (diamond), while delivering consistent response times, with the legendary and trusted mission-critical availability of VMAX.

    Simplified Data Recovery
    VMAX All Flash and VMAX3 feature zDP technology, a unique data protection solution to simplify and automate the process of data protection, offering the capability to create snapshots at regular intervals. The zDP feature eliminates the need for mainframe admins to rely on a restore from their Business Continuance Volume (BCV) ‘gold copy’ file in the event of data corruption. zDP is designed to take snapshots as frequently as every 10 minutes, slashing mainframe Recovery Point Objectives by up to 144x.

    Modernizing Disk Library
    With the introduction of DLm 4.4, EMC is breaking down the silos associated with tape libraries by creating an all-encompassing view of two virtual tape systems that allows each to read from, write to, and update the other. This global virtual library improves availability, since either DLm can act as a substitute for the other. It also enables businesses to site-swap between geographically distributed pairs of EMC DLms, switching use from production storage to protection storage for prolonged periods of time. When used with the EMC Data Domain 9500, DLm 4.4 can offer four times the capacity of its nearest competitor, leading to reduced Total Cost of Ownership.  

    EMC Makes a Quantum Leap Forward in Storage
    The launch of VMAX support for mainframe is one of a number of new announcements made by EMC today.  Including:

    Customer Quote
    Stefan Kraft, Systems Manager, IVV

    "Our requirements for mainframe aren’t going away; if anything, they’re getting more sophisticated.  That’s why we need a vendor that continues to evolve its mainframe offering to help us modernize our data center.  We have chosen VMAX3 for our mainframe storage as its premium performance and ability to simplify operations enables us to consolidate workloads and reduce TCO.  As a trusted technology partner, EMC understands our mainframe storage needs and consistently innovates to meet them.”

    Partner Quote
    Thomas J Meehan, Vice President of Technology Advancement, INNOVATION Data Processing

    “Mainframe purchase decisions tend to be a long-term commitment not to be taken lightly. Customers are always hoping for a quantum leap forward in their next buying cycle, so we’re excited about being able to participate in showing them the dramatic changes in performance, manageability and security that EMC is bringing to the table.  We expect mainframe customers planning to acquire new VMAX3 storage, will be pleased to find INNOVATION Data Processing business data protection, business resiliency and information management solutions ready to leverage the unique advantages VMAX3 storage architecture will make possible.”

    Analyst Quote
    Randy Kerns, Senior Strategist, Evaluator Group 

    “Some people think of mainframe as ‘yesterday’s’ technology – but mainframe is often in the background powering a lot of the mobile and agile applications that are revolutionizing modern businesses. Businesses relying on mainframes can’t afford for their vendors to get complacent on the mainframe as they focus on other areas of their portfolios. We expect organizations to value EMC’s mainframe enhancements, offering the usability, visibility and performance required for the modern data center.”

    Executive Quote
    Fidelma Russo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise and Mainframe Solutions, Core Technologies Division, EMC Corporation

     “Leading companies around the world have come to rely on VMAX3 for its transformational capabilities. Now, we’re proud to extend our flagship enterprise data services platform to the mainframe, bringing automated storage performance, improved TCO, operational simplification and an industry-first data protection. Furthermore, customers pivoting to a completely modern data center now have the option to realize the potential of flash in their mainframe environment by accessing all these features in VMAX All Flash. Taken as a whole, these new capabilities will allow our customers to take a quantum leap forward in their data centers, empowering them to achieve their business goals.”

    About Dell

    EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset – information – in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

    EMC, DSSD, VMAX, VMAX3, and zDP are trademarks or registered trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

    Compared to the VMAX 40K.
    Compared to current generation IBM DS 8880 series.

    This release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined under the Federal Securities Laws.  Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) risks associated with the proposed acquisition of EMC by Denali Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Dell, Inc., including, among others, assumptions related to the ability to close the acquisition, the expected closing date and its anticipated costs and benefits; (ii) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (iii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iv) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (v) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vi) component and product quality and availability; (vii) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.’s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (viii) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (ix) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (x) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xi) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xii) fluctuating currency exchange rates; (xiii) threats and other disruptions to our secure data centers or networks; (xiv) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (xv) war or acts of terrorism; and (xvi) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.