Face-Off: EMC DMX-3 vs. Hitachi USP1100

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HDS economics
The TCO and ROI story HDS uses to sell the USP1100 is based very much on the inherent virtualization capabilities of the platform itself. HDS is now selling diskless versions of its Network Storage Controller, which shows that the firm is serious about ultimately riding commodity price curves for all disk types and extending its virtualization strategy as widely as possible into all tiers.

However, in 2007, the reality of tier-one production storage is that tight integration with memory schema and disk architectures isn't disappearing any time soon.

DMX economics
EMC's positioning for DMX's ROI is based largely around the direct benefits derived from consolidating storage onto a single, flexible, high-performance platform. The story resonates particularly well with customers in the multihundred terabyte range who are sophisticated enough to take full advantage of the breadth that DMX can consolidate across multiple tiers and multiple locations.

What to consider
The USP1100 and DMX-3 are massively capable, high-performance arrays. However, as our head-to-head comparison has borne out, what's most important is how the architectures of the two arrays define the respective strategic directions of EMC and HDS. HDS is unabashedly storage controller-centric and that paradigm is a first principle around which all else follows. EMC is now a global IT powerhouse with a vast

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portfolio of options that can satisfy any imaginable user configuration. These two realities shape product and strategy. Thus, thinking of USP1100 vs. DMX-3 in a vacuum isn't prudent, because they're simply anchors of entirely different approaches to growing, managing and extending the IT infrastructure. Only after a detailed and arduous review should a user be ready to volunteer the information that "I'm a USP shop" or "I'm a DMX shop." Those are four words that will echo through the data center for years to come.

This was first published in January 2007

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