Users should be encouraged by EMC’s January 2008 announcement as it gives them clear reasons to keep investing in the platform. As expected, many of the functions announced are also available to DMX-3 customers, as EMC has done its typically good job of protecting previous investments while holding a carrot out for customers to move to the DMX-4 (flash and 1TB SATA devices). Customers should understand how EMC and STEC have increased the reliability of NAND-based flash devices, identify candidate applications and begin testing the function in high performance situations.