EMC's Cloud Computing Plans Move Down To Earth

EMC, known mainly for its heavy iron storage hardware, has big plans to reach into the cloud by expanding its Mozy on-line data protection platform with investment and with its new InfiniFlex storage systems, codenamed "Hulk."

EMC of Hopkinton, Mass., which acquired Berkeley Data Systems and its Mozy on-line storage technology last October, is already taking the service international in order to work better both with overseas companies and with U.S. companies with overseas operations, Vance Checketts, COO for Mozy, told ChannelWeb during the EMC World conference this week in Las Vegas.

"Even for U.S. companies, this is an important move," Checketts said. "A large company like GE won't continue its on-line storage rollout without an international presense. Many companies, for compliance or emotional reasons, want their data stored locally."

EMC plans to open its first overseas on-line hosted data center in Dublin, Ireland within the next two months, with others to follow, Checketts said. Shortly thereafter, it will start introducing local language versions of its software.

"It goes to show the longevity of this investment by EMC," he said. "For EMC, Mozy is the first step into the cloud. We're keyed to the cloud computing strategy of EMC."

For EMC, Mozy, and its channel partners, EMC's move into the cloud means growth opportunities, Checketts said.

"Cloud computing goes beyond backup," he said. "It includes synchronization, sharing, and other things customers can do once their data is in the cloud. And resellers will reap the benefit."

While the acquisition of Mozy gave EMC a base on which to build its cloud computing platform, it also gave Mozy the means to quickly scale to be that base.

"EMC is funding us like no VC (venture capitalist) could," Checketts said. "We were looking at a Series B funding round of $16 million before we were acquired. For EMC, that's one department's budget. . . . As a VC-backed company, we couldn't say we want to build several data centers. Maybe we could build one, then wait. To increase marketing, we would have had to go toe the VCs again. But for EMC, it makes more sense to say, we want you to have multiple international data centers."

EMC is also investing in cloud computing with its yet-to-be-announced InfiniFlex scalable storage platform, codenamed Hulk.

Few details about the InfiniFlex have been released, but it is generally thought to be similar to what IBM,of Armonk, N.Y., will bring to market as a result of its XIV acquisition, as well as the HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System introduced this month by Hewlett-Packard, of Palo Alto, Calif.

Checketts said that, prior to its acquisition by EMC, it's on-line storage infrastructures, hosted in third-party co-lo facilities, consisted of off-the-shelf storage hardware.

"For our new data centers, or when refreshing our storage products, we're using EMC," he said. "We already have InfiniFlex in pre-production."

Both the InfiniFlex "Hulk" and a new related repository software codenamed "Maui" are expected to be officially unveiled this summer.