I cannot begin to explain how much confusion (and opportunity) exists in the customer marketplace regarding EMC arrays, tools for management, or even how to move data around in an application-consistent fashion, but one thing is for sure - there are a lot of "right answers" and EMC has "the secret sauce" solution to "set it and forget it" - that is, EMC Replication Manager.

<!--more-->EMC Replication Manager (or RM) manages EMC point-in-time replication technologies through a centralized management console - it leverages the array-based replication software - it, itself, is not the replication product - just the manager.

Replication Manager coordinates the entire data replication process—from discovery and configuration to the management of multiple application consistent disk-based replicas. Auto-discover your replication environment and enable streamlined management by scheduling, recording, and cataloging replica information including auto-expiration.

With Replication Manager, you can put the right data in the right place at the right time—on-demand or based on schedules and policies that you define. This application-centric product allows you to simplify replica management with application consistency.

In multi-site environments, especially those using VMware, Replication Manager provides both ESX and VM level support. If this one doesn't make you tear up, well you've just likely not spent that much time in the trenches with multi-site replication and failover in a virtual environment where the VM can be anywhere. As the traditional fixed infrastructure fades further into the "cloud" - what I like to call the Yasser Arafat model of virtualization (the VM never visits the same place twice) - this will only become that much more important.

Check out this "deal closing" video on the power of RM interacting with ESX Servers, a Virtual SQL Server, all the while being VMotioned. (Make sure you go "Full Screen" for proper viewing!)
<div><object classid="clsid:6bf52a52-394a-11d3-b153-00c04f79faa6" width="320" height="286" codebase="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701"><param name="id" value="MediaPlayer" /><param name="filename" value="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" /><param name="Showcontrols" value="True" /><param name="autoStart" value="False" /><param name="name" value="MediaPlayer" /><param name="url" value="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" /><param name="url" value="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" /><embed id="MediaPlayer" type="application/x-mplayer2" width="320" height="286" src="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" url="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" autostart="False" showcontrols="True" filename="http://localhost/eGroup/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/replication-mgr-sql-vmware_basic.wmv" name="MediaPlayer"></embed></object></div>
Rock on EMC!

Mike Carter, eGroup, Inc.
http://www.eGroup-us.com