SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

VCE, the VMware/Cisco/EMC converged system threesome, has introduced two new Vblocks and adopted VPLEX to federate Vblocks.

A Vblock is built from pre-integrated Cisco UCS X86 servers and Nexus switches, VMware vSphere server virtualisation and EMC VMAX or VNX storage arrays. It is ordered, installed and operated as a single system.

There are two main classes of Vblock: the entry-level Series 300 with VNX arrays and the high-end Series 700 with VMAX arrays, which had just one model, the MX. VCE has introduced a smaller LX Series 700 Vblock, which is more cost-effective and easier to manage than the 700 MX. It is intended for virtualisation and cloud deployments supporting thousands of virtual machines.

A third class of Vblock has also been introduced, the Vblock Data Protection. The Vblock DP, as we might term it, includes Avamar and Data Domain deduping disk-based protection and RecoverPoint replication plus VPLEX. Vblock DP can protect other VBlocks and send its data to a remote VBlock DP.

There are also new EMC Unified Infrastructure Manager features including more storage infrastructure services, expanded VMware integration and central monitoring of many Vblock systems.

In a Q & A session, VCE chairman Michael Capellas said that EMC arrays running apps were not going to be included in Vblock configurations.

VCE says business is going really well and customers are lapping up converged systems. ®

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