As part of its CX4 announcement, EMC is offering what it calls 'online upgrades' for both CX4-to-CX4 models and perhaps more interestingly, CX3-CX4 upgrades between generations (i.e. CX300, 500, 700 and CX3 Series to CX4). The basic idea is a customer purchases a new CX4 controller and leverages previous investments in drives, enclosures and I/O modules by swapping out the old controller. Customers who recently purchased CX3's and feel they can benefit from the CX4 features but just missed the window can get a little relief knowing they can utilize this already paid for infrastructure and exploit CLARiiON's new FLARE code.
Despite the name, the upgrade is disruptive and will require users to plan accordingly when migrating to the new environment. Nonetheless, allowing this option sends a strong message to CX users that their recent investment can be leveraged. This is sound business practice by EMC as it offers an incentive for CX3 customers to invest now rather than wait until the previous investment is off the books.
Action Item: CX3 customers that had to purchase prior to the CX4 announcement received a gift from EMC in the form of so-called online upgrades. Customers should evaluate the ROI impact of exploiting CX4 features while preserving previous investments in disk drive infrastructure to determine the merits of this inter-generational upgrade approach. While less disruptive than a complete box swap, users should nonetheless be careful to include the cost of migration and disruption in the equation.
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