Software:DiskXtender

EMC DiskXtender (also known as DX) was an automated, policy-based, file system-centric product for migrating inactive data off higher-cost storage to lower-cost disk, tape, or optical devices (hierarchical storage management). DiskXtender was produced by EMC Corporation and supported on Windows, Linux, and Unix environments.

The Windows version of DX implements a file-system filter driver that intercepts user mode I/O requests. These intercepted requests are then processed by DX components. If necessary, files are fetched off of secondary storage media and then passed back to the calling applications. Otherwise, if no processing is necessary, the filter driver does nothing and simply passes the request through the stack of lower level drivers. Other applications that implement similar architecture in terms of file system filters include anti-virus and file system replication software.

In 2003, DiskXtender was one of the three information lifecycle management offerings from EMC after EMC acquired Legato System. The remaining products were EmailXtender and DatabaseXtender which archive email and databases correspondingly.

DiskXtender, by intercepting I/O from operating system, is capable of detecting inactive data and then migrating those data to secondary and/or tertiary storage with lower cost/GBs while still maintaining transparency to both applications and end users. Applications and end users have full visibility of migrated data and when access is requested, those migrated data will either be redirected to users and applications or copied back to the production system.

At various times, there were rumors of the end of life of DiskXtender and related products.