EMC Aids In Exchange Archiving

The new Legato EmailXtender Archive software now allows e-mail limits to be expanded according to a company's archiving time policies, not by a fixed storage capacity, said Todd Donaldson, director of global solutions at EMC.

The tool also centralizes all e-mails to improve legal discovery capabilities and ease management according to company e-mail policies, he said.

Also new is the EMC Express Solution for E-Mail, which offers 30 different bundles of EmailXtender Archive Edition with Clariion storage arrays. The bundles also include EMC Replication Manager/SE for rapid backups and recoveries.

The bundles can handle archiving of up to two years worth of e-mails for up to 5,000 users using a combination of Fibre Channel and SATA hard drives, Donaldson said.

To help channel partners find the right bundle, EMC revamped its on-line configurator so that instead of keying in a specific product name, it asks questions about the expected number of e-mail users and expected usage level of Exchange and outputs the right bundle along with a price quote for the client, he said.

EMC eventually will integrate the configurator into its order system so that solution providers can configure, get a quote and place an order through a single online application, Donaldson said.

Dave Ochser, director of product marketing for the enterprise storage and software business unit of Avnet Partner Solutions, a Tempe, Ariz.-based distributor, said the bundles send a clear message to the channel that EMC is serious about unifying its channels after a spree of acquisitions. "This announcement shows the channel that EMC is bringing its EMC and Legato product lines together," he said.

The revamped configuration tool will make it easier for solution providers to do business with EMC, Ochser said. "Now they don't need to specify a CX300 or CX500 or CX700," he said. "It proposes the entire solution."

To archive the Exchange e-mails of 1,000 users for two years, the bundled solution costs about $120,000, including a Clariion array with Fibre Channel and SATA drives, EmailXtender, Replication Manager and SnapView, but not including services. A bundle for 5,000 users costs about $370,000 for two years of archiving.