EMC Corporation today announced significant enhancements to its industry-leading EMC® CLARiiON® Disk Library family of easy-to-use disk-based backup and recovery solutions. They include a new entry-level CLARiiON DL210 model that is designed for mid-size enterprises and branch offices, integration of EMC NetWorker® 7.3 backup and recovery software for improved media management capabilities and support for the IBM System i (formerly iSeries) platform. EMC also announced that its CLARiiON Disk Library models will offer virtual tape "shredding" to enable deletion of data to meet business and regulatory requirements.

Since its introduction in April 2004, CLARiiON Disk Library has established itself as the leading virtual tape solution, with more than 600 customers worldwide using it to back up more than 35 petabytes of information as of the end of 2005. By increasing functionality, including the new NetWorker integration with CLARiiON Disk Library, EMC is providing intelligent software that will help customers expand beyond tape backup and better map protection and recovery service levels to the business value of information for any given application.

Ian Mcleavy, Manager for Global Enterprise Storage, Black & Decker, said, "The importance of disk-based recovery is paramount to our business operations. We are a large user of EMC NetWorker and utilize EMC CLARiiON Disk Library to back up our critical information. EMC's continued focus on integrated backup-to-disk solutions has helped us take a comprehensive approach to applying protection and recovery policies as the value of application information changes over time."

New CLARiiON Disk Library advancements include:

• CLARiiON DL210 System – The new CLARiiON DL210 system is an affordable solution that uses low-cost, high-performing 500GB Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives and can scale from four to 24 terabytes of capacity. The CLARiiON DL210 is easy to implement into an existing environment, enabling disk-based backup and restore without requiring customers to change their current operations or backup infrastructures. It emulates leading open systems tape libraries, tape drives and tape media for simple deployment and implementation with minimal user intervention.
• EMC NetWorker 7.3 Integration – The flagship product within EMC's recovery management portfolio, EMC NetWorker is the fastest and most flexible backup solution in the industry. When NetWorker is combined with CLARiiON Disk Library, customers can receive optimal, disk-based recovery of critical applications – all from one vendor. The integration of this high-performance data backup and recovery software with the CLARiiON Disk Library's management platform will further improve the benefits of disk-based backup solutions over traditional tape with improved media management capabilities. By integrating NetWorker with the CLARiiON Disk Library platform, EMC will provide customers with a common management platform for both virtual and physical tape assets. This facilitates full catalog tracking and management of data between virtual and physical tape from the primary storage area network and over extended distances.
• CLARiiON Disk Library Support for the IBM System i Platform – IBM System i customers can now take advantage of the performance, reliability, and scalability offered by CLARiiON Disk Library. The introduction of System i support for the CLARiiON DL210, DL710, DL720 and DL740 now allows customers of this platform to reduce backup windows, accelerate restores and eliminate poor tape reliability and performance.

"The market for backup-to-disk solutions, including virtual tape libraries, is maturing rapidly," said Heidi Biggar, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "Having shipped more than 35PB of VTL capacity to date, EMC has emerged as the market leader. By rolling out an entry-level version of its CLARiiON Disk Library platform, as well as a variety of software enhancements, EMC further strengthens its market position by making VTL easier and more affordable to implement and manage."

Joel Schwartz, EMC Senior Vice President and General Manager, Midrange Systems Division, added, "Since its introduction two years ago, the CLARiiON Disk Library family has been consistently expanded and its capabilities enhanced. The new CLARiiON DL210 system brings new levels of backup performance and functionality to mid-size enterprises and branch offices at an affordable price. The integration of backup software, initially with EMC NetWorker, highlights EMC's leadership in delivering new functionality, while System i support continues EMC's commitment to providing System i customers with innovative storage solutions."