Should You Upgrade Your EMC CLARiiON to the VNX? - Part 2

There is often a tension between what we want, what we need, and what we can afford. If you’re stuck at the crossroads and can’t decide whether to keep your EMC CLARiiON or upgrade to the VNX, you are not alone.
Here are four more considerations to help you decide whether or not an upgrade is the best decision for your enterprise.
(This is the second post in a two-part series discussing whether or not to upgrade your EMC CLARiiON. If you missed our first post, you can read it by clicking here.)
Keep the EMC CLARiiON and skip the upgrade if:

• You want to add a few solid-state drives to fix a bottleneck. Did you know that you can install solid-state drives on the CLARiiON CX4 series? If you would like to consider adding solid-state technology but are hesitant to invest in an EMC VNX, a CLARiiON CX4 series controller could be a solution that meets your performance expectations. The CX4-480 and CX4-960, both of which support solid-state capacity, are available on the used market and can help you add SSD capacity without the cost of a VNX.
• You wonder how you will get CLARiiON replacement parts now that EMC won’t sell them. Don’t let the scarcity of replacement parts influence you to upgrade your hardware. Many third-party storage vendors will continue to provide EMC replacement parts and hardware upgrades long after the End-of-Life date. With more hardware than ever on the used market, you’ll be able to find the replacement EMC power supply, disk drive, or controller you need at an affordable price.

Seriously consider upgrading your SAN to the EMC VNX upgrade if:

• You want an entire array filled with solid-state drives. EMC upgraded their VNX series in October 2011 to include a VNX array completely filled with solid-state drives (SSDs). If your enterprise is looking for the lowest-possible latency and is undeterred by the price tag associated with solid-state technology, the VNX5500-F can hold up to 250 solid-state drives and support up to 50 TB of SSD capacity.
• Your environment needs more than 1,000 TB of raw capacity. While the CLARiiON CX4-960 provides 960 TB of maximum raw capacity, it can’t provide the commanding and impressive capacity offering of the EMC VNX. The VNX 5700 offers almost 1,500 TB of raw capacity while the VNX 7500 can support close to 3,000 TB of storage capacity. With market-leading power and scalability, the VNX is a viable option for high-capacity environments.