Chuck's Blog

VNXe: The Soul Of A New Array -- Part 2

You're midway through a series of posts that share the "story behind the story" for EMC's new VNXe storage arrays.

In part 1, I attempted to set the stage with the goals of the Neo project, and some of the inherent difficulties involved.

In this post, we get into the meat of it -- what were the fundamental product design assumptions, and -- more importantly -- how were they different than what came before?

VNXe: The Soul Of A New Array -- Part 1

This week, EMC is announcing an astounding variety of new storage offerings -- some that are extensions of areas where we're already strong, and others that represent entirely new offerings for new use cases.

For me, the most interesting part of the announcement is the new VNXe, internally code-named "Neo".  Based on the industry coverage, it seems I wasn't the only one who saw that.

Many people will perceive this as merely a new array from EMC.  But those who dig deeper will be rewarded – the Neo project reflects several powerful, new themes in the storage industry that we’ll undoubtedly see more of in the future.  

Early on, I felt obligated to tell the story of Neo -- now officially the VNXe -- how it came to be, how it is different than what came before, and why it represents some very fresh thinking in the storage world.

The title of this series references Tracy Kidder's famous novel "The Soul Of A New Machine", detailing how Data General brought an entirely new minicomputer to market in the early days of computing.

The analogy shouldn't be lost on anyone -- EMC's investment in Neo was done largely in ex-DG facilities, and a few participants were long-time DG employees.

But -- at its essence -- this story has very little to do with hardware.  It’s really about re-thinking what storage software should do for the people who use it.  

Introducing The VNX Family

Among all the many storage announcements from EMC today, perhaps the most impactful to many is the new VNX family.  

Certainly, it’s been the subject of the most speculation.

The new VNX models can best be seen as a linear extension and convergence of the wildly successful CLARiiON and Celerra lines – but goes farther than either one individually.

And the new VNXe is in many regards an entirely new product designed to serve an entirely new market segment.  

Both products will likely be extremely hot topics in the industry storage discussion during 2011 and beyond.  

Fasten your seatbelts :-)