EMC VIPR First update adds support for Hadoop and SRMs

EMC Corporation recently released its first update to the software definition storage application EMCVIPR, which added support for Hadoop and EMC's storage Resource Management suite. EMC also updates its storage Resource Management Suite (srms) for managing storage hardware platforms.


EMC disclosed last May that it will use its VIPR to enter the software definition store, the September 2013 VIPR officially listed.


according to EMC's vision, VIPR separates the storage control layer from the data tier to simplify management and to use different storage arrays as a storage pool.


EMC Commitment VIPR will ultimately support all competitor storage arrays and common hardware. Last November VIPR's version 1.0 support included EMC's Vnx,vmax and Isilon, as well as NetApp storage arrays. It also supports the Recoverpoint backup software and object storage services of EMC Corporation through the Amazon S3,EMC Atmos and OpenStack Swift's application programming interface.

The
1.1 version of VIPR can act as a plug-in to EMC Storage resource Management (SRM), allowing customers to deploy the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) between any file systems through the VIPR management program. EMC's ViPR1.1 also supports the use of Vmax array Symmetrix Remote Data facility backup applications.


"We see VIPR as a platform," said Chris Ratcliffe, marketing vice president of EMC's Senior software division, "in the first release, we laid the groundwork for future processing of very automated and complex logic." ”


SRM can be managed through VIPR, and a new version of the product has the same interface. SRM provides capabilities for resource utilization and capacity planning, change management, and performance analysis and reporting.


Ratcliffe means EMC has strengthened the entire reporting and display interface for SRM in the new release. SRM is installed as a virtual application.


, according to Ratcliffe, allows users to drill down into SRM reports when using VIPR integration. and is compatible with non-EMC storage arrays that support VIPR.


VIPR supports HDFS data services in a way that is part of object storage. VIPR support for HDFS allows marketers to deploy HDFS on any file system supported by VIPR.


Enterprises running Hadoop on enterprise storage do not need to export data to another separate HDFs cluster to run HADDOP and analyze data.


"One of the key problems with Hadoop is that you have to copy the data to the place where the data is analyzed," Ratcliffe said. "Customers need to move data from the database to the Hadoop cluster, store the data on HDFs, and analyze it here." But now (using VIPR) we can build a HDFs file system on the customer's existing data. VIPR can deploy HDFS on the underlying storage array and perform the analysis of the standard Hadoop stack. ”


VIPR has a long way to go before EMC's vision of software. EMC still needs to add a lot of storage service functionality. VIPR supports a unique competitor NetApp's storage array, and Ratcliffe says it will soon support Hitachi's Data systems.


"We're looking for the emergence of a killer app for VIPR," says Mike matchett--, senior analyst and advisor at Taneja Group in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. This is what I'm looking for, perhaps, when customers create comprehensive data protection from the data protection services provided by the VIPR upper tier. ”


EMC is developing integrated data protection capabilities in VIPR, but it is estimated to be difficult to complete by the end of 2014.


Matchett says the functionality in VIPR 1.1 is significant, even if these features are not valuable for data protection services.


"I understand the SRM in the eyes of the client; he is a way to simplify the management of large cluster environments," he says. "The use of SRM kits to dilute product boundaries, like a whole glass, is very easy to manage." However, you need to make different storage products the same as the administrator. ”


He says HDFs support is not a difficult task for VIPR, because VIPR itself supports object storage, but this is limited to large enterprises running Hadoop in the data center. "EMC says, ' Please don't move your data, we'll deploy HDFs to the enterprise's data center to access the data, '" Matchett said.


Enterprise Strategy Group's senior analyst, Wayne Pauley, says the integration of SRM and VIPR is a great step for EMC, and there has been a customer criticism that EMC has too many management tools on its storage array.


"simplifying products makes it easier for it practitioners to manage their resources," he says. "Based on our feedback from VIPR customers, VIPR provides a unified management platform for customers to manage their EMC resources." When customers use VIPR, VIPR provides a unified management of different storage. Customers are no longer managing different resources individually, but are managing different resources through VIPR. ”


with the release of VIPR, EMC allows customers to download VIPR for production-free data from the site. For production data, VIPR is billed as managed storage capacity, and the larger the storage capacity, the lower the monthly cost per gigabyte.