EMC Starts to Roll Out ViPR Applications

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With the rise of software-defined storage, the controllers that are used to manage data are emerging as a new type of platform. Of course, in order to be a platform for managing data, those controllers need applications that allow IT organizations to manage data across multiple distributed storage systems.

EMC today released one of those applications in the form of version 3.0 of its Storage Resource Management Suite, which is now compatible with the EMC ViPR software-defined storage platform.

Chris Ratcliffe, vice president of marketing for EMC’s Advanced Software Division, says the ultimate goal with ViPR is to give IT organizations the ability to create and manage a private cloud that supports file, block or object storage requirements in a way that, from a cost perspective, is equivalent to what a public cloud service provider would make available.

The difference, says Ratcliffe, is that in the case of the private cloud, the internal IT organization would have a lot more control over a software-defined environment.

In the age of Big Data, adds Ratcliffe, the economics of legacy storage systems are clearly becoming unsustainable. Software-defined storage not only provides a way to manage storage at scale, ViPR is specifically designed to apply EMC storage management applications to storage systems from both EMC and its rivals.

As is often the case with any emerging class of technologies, there’s a lot of debate about various approaches to software-defined storage. In the case of EMC, the focus is on a ViPR controller. Others argue that the focus of software-defined storage needs to be on industry standard x86 servers that will allow organizations to take advantage of the economics of Moore’s Law. Whatever the approach, the management of storage is finally fundamentally changing for the better.