EMC announces new SAN Copy software.

EMC Corporation recently announced SAN Copy, a new data movement application that enables businesses to centrally manage the movement of data between current and legacy EMC CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage systems without consuming host resources. SAN Copy delivers increased operational efficiencies across organizations through improved performance and manageability, while reducing the costs typically associated with host-based data movement and migration processes.

The new software offers an easy-to-use, server-less approach to data movement across business and application boundaries. Customers can now move data between CLARiiON and Symmetrix systems using the speed of the storage area network (SAN) infrastructure. SAN Copy represents a storage-based alternative to the less-reliable and low-performing server-based implementations most companies employ today.

An ideal solution for volume-oriented data movement, SAN Copy enables organizations to rapidly copy and move up to four terabytes of data per hour without impacting applications. For example, customers can use SAN Copy to move information from production environments to test systems during application development--ensuring access to the most current data resulting in higher levels of accuracy and consistency. SAN Copy is also ideal for data migrations and extended distance bulk data copying over wide-area networks.

Gasper Genovese, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., said, "EMC SAN Copy enables us to quickly and easily move large amounts of information with no effect on our servers or applications. In fact, a mid-stream server crash had zero impact to one of our SAN Copy data movements. This is particularly important as we're using SAN Copy to migrate and consolidate our circulation application and associated data. The resulting new levels of accuracy, consistency and overall operational efficiency will pay tremendous benefits back to our business."

David Donatelli, EMC's Executive Vice President, Storage Platforms Operations, said, "Many of our customers use CLARiiON and Symmetrix systems in their organizations. These customers have been asking for a way to move data between these systems without compromising server resources - today we're answering the call. With SAN Copy, organizations now have a simple way to centrally manage fast data movement to gain operational efficiencies."

Mike Kahn, Managing Director, The Clipper Group, Inc., technology acquisition consultants based in Wellesley, Mass., said, "Large-scale data movement can negatively impact a number of IT infrastructure components, including servers and applications. Today, EMC is announcing a new storage-based software tool that gives enterprises a simple and reliable way to move massive volumes of data between Symmetrix and CLARiiON systems, without impacting application servers. EMC's SAN Copy technology can save a lot of time and money."

SAN Copy is fully integrated with EMC's TimeFinder and SnapView local replication applications, eliminating the impact to production activities by using Business Continuance Volumes (BCVs) or Snapshots as source volumes so applications stay online throughout the data movement process.

EMC also announced a new data migration offering for Hewlett-Packard/Compaq (HPQ) StorageWorks systems. EMC Professional Services will use SAN Copy software to move data from StorageWorks arrays onto EMC's leading networked storage platforms--CLARiiON and Symmetrix. This new service results in complete data integrity, while eliminating LAN bottlenecks of traditional data migration tools.

SAN Copy supports CLARiiON CX and FC Series systems and Symmetrix DMX and 8000 Series systems. For extended distance configurations, EMC has qualified Nishan storage switches. Qualifications of additional vendors' switches to follow.

SAN Copy is available immediately and starts at $18,000.