EMC plans to offer data classification

22.06.2006
EMC Corp. plans to provide users with data classification functionality, a move that could presage another wave of mergers and deals with storage industry start-ups.

While EMC has not yet formally announced a product, CEO Joe Tucci discussed the company's intentions at its analyst day on June 7 in New York, and executives have been talking up the technology, which the company calls Intelligent Information Management.

Data classification software lets storage administrators set up policies so that data is automatically categorized by its importance and then stored using a hierarchical storage management scheme. Critical data is assigned to high-end storage, and less important and infrequently accessed data is relegated on slower, cheaper storage.

EMC users said they were looking forward to the new functionality.

John Halamka, CIO at Harvard Medical School and CareGroup Healthcare System in Boston, said he believes that EMC's new product will be the type of functionality his organizations need to maximize the utility of their storage investment. Halamka said he looks forward to being an early adopter.

Kenneth J. Kucera, senior vice president and CIO of First National Bank of Omaha, said his organization would probably take a look at it as a proof-of-concept. He also said that the technology is a logical corollary to the tiered storage architecture his organization already has.