EMC Launches New Family of Industry-Leading Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Systems New Systems Support Smooth Migration to Enterprise Storage Networks, Deliver World's Largest Capacity and Unprecedented Levels of Performance NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 1999-- EMC Corporation, the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software and services, today introduced a complete new family of industry-leading, platform-independent EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems. With the world's largest capacity (more than nine terabytes in a single system) and unparalleled performance, the new family of systems is the premier enterprise storage platform for deployment of the emerging large-scale enterprise storage networks (ESN). The new Symmetrix systems, all available today, take the next step in helping corporations consolidate their exploding amounts of information into centralized pools of enterprise storage where it can be more effectively managed, shared and protected.
The new systems announced today include the enhanced Symmetrix embedded software, or microcode, designed to support the highest levels of performance and critical enterprise storage network functionality, such as network switching. The software also enables full utilization of Symmetrix system capacity within an enterprise storage network through a four-fold increase in the number of logical volumes to which information can be addressed (from 1,024 to 4,096). These features represent the latest in a long line of customer benefits made possible by the massive software R&D investments EMC has undertaken to make Symmetrix Enterprise Storage the premier platform for the deployment of enterprise storage networks.
The systems also boast unprecedented levels of performance and more than nine terabytes of capacity in a single, integrated storage system. Nine terabytes is the equivalent of 2.25 billion pages of text.
Matthew M. Sweeney, Vice President of Information Systems Infrastructure for Rite Aid, one of the nation's leading drug store chains, said, ''Information accessibility and speed are key to differentiating Rite Aid from our competition. We are using EMC's new Symmetrix to consolidate information into an eight-terabyte data warehouse that tracks shopping trends. The new systems enable us to bring all of our enterprise information into a common enterprise storage network infrastructure, providing management with a single, comprehensive view of the business.''
''The enterprise connectivity of Symmetrix has been essential in the design of the data warehouse,'' continued Sweeney. ''The UNIX based application is refreshed regularly with mainframe data using EMC InfoMover software, ensuring business decisions are made based on accurate and current information collected in real-time from across our computing enterprise.''
Michael C. Ruettgers, EMC President and CEO, said, ''The essence of the Symmetrix family lies in its modularity, allowing EMC to rapidly incorporate the latest advancements for enhanced scalability, performance, and availability. This new family of systems follows just ten months after the launch of the current Symmetrix family and demonstrates the magnitude of software and systems investments EMC has made to maintain a multi-year competitive lead. Symmetrix continues to be in a league of its own in helping customers consolidate more and more of their critical data and take advantage of the flexibility and reach of the EMC Enterprise Storage Network.''
The world's most open storage solution, Symmetrix systems provide simultaneous connectivity for every major computer platform, operating system and application used today. This flexibility is the cornerstone of EMC's ESN strategy and underscores the growing industry trend for a consolidated, heterogeneous information infrastructure, allowing customers to apply the benefits of enterprise storage to all their distributed information resources.
The systems announced today support the inter-mixing of high-performance 18GB disk drives and 36GB disk drives to enable customers to achieve the perfect mix of performance and capacity for their application environments. The new products support any combination of UNIX, Windows NT, AS/400, and PC LAN operating systems through the Symmetrix 3000 line; mainframes through the Symmetrix 5000 line; and any combination of mainframes and open systems using Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Platform (ESP) software on Symmetrix 3000 or 5000 systems. They include:
--Symmetrix 3930 and Symmetrix 5930 systems - the world's highest-capacity, high-performance enterprise storage systems optimized for enterprise-wide consolidation and very large applications such as data warehouses and enterprise resource planning (ERP). These systems offer a maximum capacity of more than nine terabytes (9,267 gigabytes) in a single integrated system.
--Symmetrix 3830 and Symmetrix 5830 systems - the world's highest-performance, high-capacity enterprise storage systems for enterprise applications and medium-scale consolidation, offering a maximum capacity of nearly three and a half terabytes (3,475 gigabytes) in a single integrated system.
--Symmetrix 3630 and Symmetrix 5630 systems - the world's highest-performance, scalable entry-level systems available for business and remote applications, offering a maximum capacity of more than a terabyte (1,158 gigabytes) in a single integrated system.
Since the original Symmetrix introduction in 1991, EMC has continuously updated Symmetrix systems to stay ahead of customer information processing demands. Since that time, the Symmetrix family has remained EMC's flagship enterprise storage system and the primary contributor to EMC's sustained revenue and profit growth. As a result, EMC has captured a market-leading 35% share of the external RAID storage systems market (according to Dataquest). This success is directly tied to the exponential level of value EMC customers gain as compared to competitive offerings. Symmetrix systems and software eliminate backup windows, which help customers speed new products to market and better service customers; support the 24x7 uninterrupted data access required for traditional database and online transaction processing applications, as well as the emerging data-intensive Windows NT and Internet-based applications; and significantly reduce the costs of managing all distributed information resources.
Availability
The new Symmetrix systems are available immediately. U.S. list prices vary based on configuration.
EMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the world's technology and market leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent enterprise storage systems, software and services. The company's products store, retrieve, manage, protect and share information from all major computing environments, including UNIX, Windows NT and mainframe platforms. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. For further information about EMC and its storage solutions, EMC's corporate web site can be accessed at emc.com.
EMC and Symmetrix are registered trademarks and EMC Enterprise Storage and EMC Enterprise Storage Network are trademarks of EMC Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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) a failure by any supplier of high density DRAMs, disk drives or other components to meet EMC's requirements for an extended period of time; (ii) delays in the development of new technology and the transition to new products; (iii) the historic and recurring ''hockey stick'' pattern of the Company's sales by which a disproportionate percentage of a quarter's total sales occur in the last month and weeks and days of each quarter; (iv) the ''hockey stick'' pattern of the Company's sales, making it extremely difficult to predict near-term demand and adjust production capacity accordingly; (v) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, in the computer storage market; (vi) economic trends in various geographic markets and fluctuating currency exchange rates; (vii) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines; (viii) deterioration or termination of the agreements with certain of the Company's OEMs or resellers; (ix) risks associated with acquisitions; (x) Year 2000 issues; (xi) 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact:
EMC Corporation Greg Eden 508-435-1000 (Ext. 77195) eden_greg@emc.com |