EMC CTO Outlines Advances in IT Automation

Key to that effort are a forthcoming version of the Ionix systems management software and Project Redwood, an effort led by VMware that will allow IT organizations to create self-service portals that end users can access to request specific amounts of IT processing capability.

Other key elements of the EMC strategy include tools that will dynamically allocate data based on usage and relevance, thereby eliminating the need to create specific tiers of storage; enhanced compression algorithms that will increase the amount of data stored on storage devices by as much as 50 percent; and a 20 percent reduction in the number of storage arrays required by most customers.

Instead of managing physical devices, Gelsinger outlined a future where IT organizations will manage pools of computer resources that will be distributed across multiple Vblock servers that will simultaneously access file systems, block data and next-generation object-oriented storage management systems.

Taken together, these offerings will provide much of the IT infrastructure foundation that IT organizations will require to manage private cloud computing deployments as they evolve into organizations that truly deliver IT as a service.