DMX provides Fibre Channel connectivity, with the 1000 and 2000 models supporting Escon. EMC says Ficon support for the 1000 and 2000 will be available this summer. Officials also announced the Symmetrix z8000, a new version of the previous generation Symm optimized for mainframe environments that supports both Escon and Ficon.
Tucci revealed that EMC was originally planning to have an interim Symmetrix product between the Symmetrix 5.5 and 6. But about a year ago the company cancelled it to concentrate on the DMX development, he said. "More than a year ago, we cancelled the other product, and we bet the ranch [on DMX]," Tucci said.
Was it worth the wait? Analysts say the jury is still out -- depending on how well the DMX is received -- but noted that EMC would probably have lost share to HDS regardless of whether it had released that midlife kicker to the Symm. "Sun Microsystems Inc. [Nasdaq: SUNW] would have sold lots of HDS arrays regardless of what EMC did," says Ingalls.
EMC expects half its Symmetrix sales in the current quarter to be DMX, with the other half coming from its existing Symmetrix 8000 product line.
In anticipation of EMC's Symmetrix DMX launch, HDS last week announced expanded options for its Lightning 9900 V series, which now provides up to 146 Tbytes of raw storage and 64 Fibre Channel ports. IBM, meanwhile, today announced that it has released the first interface for Shark that's compatible with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)'s Bluefin specification, designed to provide vendor-independent SAN management (see HDS Launches Preemptive Strike and IBM's Shark Gets Bluefin).
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