EMC Corp, the Hopkinton, Massachusetts company that has been making IBM Corp’s storage life a misery, is confidently plotting to conquer the storage world now that IBM and Storage Technology Corp have joined forces, (CI No 2,932). Its new customer support center for Europe has been up and running for the last two months, and the company says its staff of 15 will double by the end of this year. The Cork, Ireland-based call center takes enquiries directly from its equipment installed at customer’s sites across the world. If the software detects that all is not right, it phones home, often way before a fault could be discovered manually – it is rumored that storage systems were the first to realize something was badly wrong before the 1995 Kobe earthquake, when systems throughout Japan picked up the vibe and frantically began to dial home. In the majority of cases, errors can be repaired remotely. Now, as its search for dominance continues, EMC has announced a Network-Attached Intelligent Storage System that will include its Media Server combined with a file server system. With the addition of a file server the new product has the potential to replace a standard client-server configuration. If – or rather when, the manufacturers’ hype is to be believed, the Network Computer does spread through the workplace, it is feasible that the storage system could double up as a file server. And EMC intends to be ready and waiting. First shipments are planned in the current quarter.
