EMC Corp. has announced version 7.0 of the Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution, extending EMC's capabilities in file virtualization and management to support enterprise archiving from heterogeneous file and network attached storage (NAS) systems to the EMC Centera content addressed storage (CAS) platform. The Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution now offers customers a single platform to manage both active and inactive files throughout a file's lifecycle across heterogeneous environments.

EMC Rainfinity is the leading file virtualization solution in use on the market according to an October 2006 research survey by TheInfoPro, a leading independent IT research network. TheInfoPro recently released its Wave 8 Storage Management Fortune 1000 Report, showing that file virtualization holds the top position on TheInfoPro's Storage Technology Heat Index. The Heat Index measures users' reported spending and implementation plans and is based on interviews with TheInfoPro's TIPNetwork of Fortune 1000 IT professionals. A June 2006 Taneja Group survey of global IT decision-makers also indicated that 62 percent of respondents identify file management as either the top priority or one of the top priorities requiring immediate attention in the data center.

"IT organizations clearly want better ways to manage growing file system resources, not only to manage infrastructure capacity and performance, but also to gain a higher degree of control over the lifecycle of file-level data," said Brad O'Neill, senior analyst and consultant, Taneja Group. "The EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution offers enterprises a highly scalable, out-of-band platform designed to deliver an array of essential file management services and now with EMC Centera support that includes the critical area of archiving."

The Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution includes seven applications that optimize capacity management, performance management, storage consolidation, tiered storage management, data protection, synchronous replication and global namespace management -- all from a single interface. In version 7.0, EMC introduces the new File Management application which automatically identifies and archives static files based on customizable policies with the intention of lowering total cost of ownership, streamlining backup and recovery, and addressing governance and compliance requirements via Centera.

"The EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution has helped our IT organization achieve dramatic efficiency gains and a higher level of control over our enterprise file systems," said Bill Fleming, senior systems administrator, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "Our IT organization has been impressed with the Rainfinity solution's ease of use across our mixed-vendor environment, and we're thrilled it now provides native file archiving support."

"EMC recognizes that while file virtualization is a strategic technology, customers also are looking for solutions that can deliver immediate benefits and help them prepare their environments for virtualization," said Mark Lewis, chief development officer, EMC Corp. "The EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization solution offers enterprise customers a single product that helps tame file system sprawl while leveraging the rich universal archiving capabilities of the EMC Centera platform."