PowerMax maxes more with vVOL replication, better DR and cloud tiering

Dell EMC today updated the high-end PowerMax storage array to run more VMware Virtual Volumes (vVOLs), migrate data to the public cloud and improve disaster recovery capability.

vVOLS and SRDF/A

With today’s update, VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 8.3 can access a PowerMax array replication feature called SRDF/A, to automate VM movement between sites. SRDF maintains real-time or near real time copies of data on a production storage array at a remote site. It can work synchronously or, with the/A version, asynchronously.

A disaster recovery version of SRDF – SRDF/Metro – pairs the remote site target with the primary site. The primary and secondary site arrays may appear as a single virtual device for presentation to a single host or host cluster. If one of the primary arrays is unavailable, a new Smart DR facility maintains data resiliency by copying data from both primary arrays in a cluster to one remote array.

A new CloudMobility feature enables a PowerMax array to move, via snapshots, data to the public cloud or on-premises object storage for cheaper long-term retention. CloudMobility targets are AWS, Azure and Dell EMC’s ECS object storage system. This is a two-way system and data can be returned to the PowerMax array.  Using a Dell EMC vApp, PowerMax admins can move snapshot data from S3 object storage to Amazon’s elastic block storage (EBS).

Dell EMC has added Thales end-to-end encryption software to PowerMax arrays.

All these new PowerMax features are generally available.