EMC Builds On ILM Portfolio

Perhaps putting its best face yet on the ILM term, EMC, which alone introduced 30 ILM products this year, is now trying to hit the sweet spot of information management.

The company is making it easier for partners to offer solutions that automatically migrate data off primary application servers onto tiered storage. That includes e-mail, databases and ERP data.

The company calls it "information-aware" ILM because customers can set policies that will automate many tasks that now are performed by administrators. The tools include the upgraded Legato EmailXtender, Express Solution for E-Mail and Database Xtenders. All are designed to automate the migration of data off primary servers via user-defined policies.

EmailXtender is a centralized storage and retrieval platform that uses those policies to automatically move data off of Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes e-mail servers into an

e-mail archival system. It indexes all incoming and outgoing messages. The upgrade includes support for Exchange Server 2003 and Lotus Notes and improved search functionality.

Just as the EmailXtender identifies which messages are accessed more frequently and archives them on tiered storage accordingly, Database Xtender does the same with Oracle and Sybase databases. EMC recently added PeopleSoft application support as well as support for customer applications running on Oracle and Sybase databases.

With the recent deadline mandating that customers comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as other regulations, demand for the EmailXtender products has been quite strong, says Ian Singer, CEO of ICG, an EMC channel partner that specializes in compliance. "We have EmailXtender clients all over the country, and the number is growing rapidly," Singer says.

In fact, last month alone, Singer says he had 10 customers deploying EmailXtender. Among them was Gardner Carton and Douglas, a Chicago-based law firm with 250 attorneys, which opted for the upgrade for its improved search capabilities and faster performance.

For smaller Exchange shops, EMC also is offering the EMC Express Solution for E-Mail, the first in a group of offerings targeted at SMB customers. The solution includes Clariion disk storage with Fibre Channel or ATA drives, and replication software; the Legato EmailXtender Archive Edition software, which expands user mailbox sizes while coaxing and compressing older e-mail to lower-cost drives; Replication Manager/SE software, which automates Clariion-based replication management; and the EMC Exchange Accelerator Service, which will let partners offer customers design and deployment of Exchange servers.

EMC also has rolled out software that uses policy management to migrate data from file servers to a variety of types of lower-cost storage, including NAS heads and low-cost serial ATA disk arrays. The Celerra FileMover uses an API that EMC has released to partners in EMC's Developers Program.

The API allows solution providers to integrate

the policy/migration engine into their programs. Among those that have said they will use the API are Arkivio with its

Auto-Stor Software, Enigma Data Systems with its SmartMove offering, and Veritas, which is utilizing it in its Data Lifecycle Manager products.

EMC's New App-Aware Wares:

EmailXtender—Upgrade adds support for Lotus Domino and Exchange Server 2003.

Express Solution for E-Mail—The first in a group of bundled offerings targeted at SMB customers includes Clariion disk storage and replication software; the Legato Email Xtender Archive Edition software; Replication Manager/SE software; and the EMC Exchange Accelerator Service.

Database Xtender—New release adds PeopleSoft application support as well as support for customer applications running on Oracle and Sybase databases.