EMC News: Facebook, VCE, Greenplum

With EMC World 2012 in full swing in Las Vegas, there is news of Facebook using 20 petabytes of EMC storage, VCE announcing new capabilities,  and a Greenplum conference for big data science happening next door to EMC World.

Facebook to use 20 Petabytes of EMC Isilon storage?

TechWeek Europe reports that EMC has won a deal with Facebook to supply 20 petabytes of data, using the scale-out Isilon architecture. In addition to launching new Isilon models, this week EMC unveiled plans for the next generation of Isilon OneFS scale-out NAS operating system, code named Mavericks. Earlier this year EMC announced an enterprise-ready solution with native support for Hadoop, with the Isilon scale-out NAS with HDFS. Facebook is known to be a large user of Hadoop - and even documented its large-scale Hadoop 30 petabyte data migration between data centers last year. With all of the focus recently on the Facebook IPO, it is no question that a primary challenge the company faces is performing data mining on the vast trove of data it holds.

"A major factor that sets Isilon apart in this era of Big Data is its interoperability with a wide array of applications delivered through a range of industry standard protocols," said Benjamin Woo, Program Vice President, Worldwide Storage System at IDC. "Isilon recently enhanced this capability to include native integration with Hadoop. With OneFS 'Mavericks,' Isilon is again raising the bar on interoperability with enhanced integration with VMware and a new platform API that provides additional options to enterprises to integrate and manage Isilon storage systems with third-party applications. With its expanded security features, including SEC 17a-4 compliance, OneFS 'Mavericks' is addressing another vital need of enterprise customers. Innovations like these strongly position Isilon scale-out NAS to help enterprises successfully address the challenges of Big Data."

Big Data and Data Science Summit

EMC's Big Data Division Greenplum is holding its own event in parallel with EMC World. The Greenplum Data Science Summit is also in Las Vegas, with the tag line: Prediction, transformation, and building a data dream team. EMC CEO Joe Tucci kicked off EMC World Monday, speaking frequently of the rising trends in big data, real-time analytics, and the growing importance of data science.

The Greenplum Analytics Workbench debuted at EMC World Tuesday. As a lab environment Grenplum and partners will use the 1,000-node cluster to test the limits of scale-out infrastructure technology, and  re-define the models for applying Big Data analytics. Collectively numerous companies have come together to facilitate the development of Apache Hadoop as an important tool for Big Data analytics. Hardware and software companies include Intel, Mellanox Technologies, Micron, Seagate, SuperMicro, Switch and VMware.

VCE introduces new capabilities.

VCE  announced several new converged infrastructure capabilities that increase business agility and accelerate the transformation of enterprise data centers by further simplifying the deployment, protection and management of cloud-based applications and data.

Through integration with EMC VPLEX virtual storage, VCE Vblocks enjoy innovative hybrid cloud and dynamic data center models. Vblock Data Protection offers simplified and comprehensive data protection for a converged infrastructure that encompasses backup, recovery, replication, business continuity and data mobility for virtual environments. Advanced enterprise-class converged infrastructure features in the new Vblock Series 700 Model LX are included, which features VMAX 10K storage arrays, the latest Cisco UCS server and Cisco Nexus switching technologies, and support for VMware vSphere 5.

“The EMC VMAX Family offers a lineup of the world’s most comprehensive Powerful, Trusted and Smart storage solutions for enterprises building their Hybrid Clouds," said Brian Gallagher, president, Enterprise Storage Division at EMC.  "With the new Vblock 700LX system, VCE continues to deliver solutions enabling cloud and IT-as-a-Service. By fully utilizing EMC VPLEX and the EMC VMAX 10K, VCE’s converged infrastructure delivers a fast and efficient way for IT organizations to transform their data centers.”