EMC VNX Unified Storage Shatters Benchmark Performance Records

Hopkinton, MA - February 24, 2011 -

EMC Corporation's (NYSE: EMC) recently introduced EMC® VNX™ series unified storage system is the new industry performance leader based on new independent benchmark testing. According to the latest Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 testing data—measuring networked file performance and overall response times—the EMC VNX series storage system shattered previous performance records, further demonstrating EMC midrange storage leadership.

Benchmark Highlights

• The test highlights that the EMC® VNX Series is 49% faster than the previous leader, an HP system (BL860c i2 4-node HA-NFS Cluster)1, 23% faster than an IBM system (IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage 16-node cluster, Version 1.2)2, and 160% faster than the NetApp FAS 6240 Series system 3. The EMC VNX Series performed at 497,623 SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 operations per second. Faster throughput enables a storage system to support more virtual servers and intense workloads, a key requirement in a cloud infrastructure and enterprise deployments.
• The EMC VNX Series also had the lowest overall response time (ORT) of systems tested, taking the top spot with a response time of .96 milliseconds. Faster response times enable end-users to access information quicker and more efficiently.
• The new performance records were achieved as a result of the EMC VNX Series' modular unified storage architecture optimized to exploit the performance benefits of SSDs (Solid State Disks). EMC is the industry leader in the use of SSDs, which store and transfer data at much faster speeds than traditional disk drives.
• The EMC VNX Series also demonstrated unprecedented levels of storage efficiency during the testing. Traditional storage systems typically utilize 60% of raw capacity while the EMC VNX Series was able to utilize a remarkable 98% of its raw capacity, which in a real-world environment translates into significant cost savings.

The recently introduced EMC® VNX™ family—designed for virtual data centers—converges the award-winning EMC CLARiiON® storage area network (SAN) and EMC Celerra® network attached storage (NAS) systems into a single, unified family of solutions. The VNX series delivers leadership simplicity, efficiency, and performance for demanding virtual application and enterprise environments.

With features such as the EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) Suite, including FAST VP (Virtual Pools) and FAST Cache, the VNX Series provides real-world customer environments with superior performance, capacity optimization, and comprehensive storage management functionality, while exploiting the benefits of Solid State Drives (SSD).

"Midtier storage customers are at a crossroads, with heterogeneous IT infrastructures that include both SAN and NAS storage. So deciding how to best leverage and optimize information assets becomes tricky," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, Inc. "EMC's VNX simply, seamlessly and cost-effectively supports both SAN and NAS. It's optimized for virtualized server environments and armed with FAST technologies that balance and optimize data automatically and efficiently. Plus, VNX's highly scalable, modular components—complete with Intel Xeon multi-core processors—make it a powerful and flexible solution. Overall, the SPEC results for EMC's VNX illustrate how the company's dedication to innovation helps mid-tier customers solve common storage problems."

"VNX brings together all of the leading functionality, benefits and the latest in processor and disk technologies into one comprehensive storage system," said, Rich Napolitano, President, Unified Storage Division at EMC. "EMC's strategy of helping customers accelerate their journey to the cloud includes automated management to properly tier data in virtualized environments. These benchmark results illustrate how our unique and efficient use of SSDs can help customers better manage and run mixed virtualized application and enterprise workloads."