The Dell-HP clash over 3PAR shook the storage world with its billion-dollar attempts. Dell’s offer to purchase 3PAR for $1.15 billion was ousted by HP when it offered a stunning $1.6 billion (read more analysis on the deal here). But let’s take a break from this seemingly unending battle, as EMC and VMware have just crashed the party. VMware enters the picture with its extensive product integration into EMC which will be formally announced this week.

EMC Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Burton praised the new VMware integration in a CRN article. It will manage Clariion and Celerra products lines efficiently with Vmware’s vCenter virtualization management product.

The software enhancement includes over 60 integration points with VMware. This is far-reaching and the broadest since its purchase by EMC and is massive compared to the development of other storage players. From Burton at the CRN parent Everything Channel’s Xchange Conference addressed to solution providers:

“If you are a VMware administrator you can look down into storage and if you are an EMC administrator you can look up to the virtual machine,” he said. “You only get that with EMC.” He also added, “This is a huge software release for us, geared around how to drive the best storage in a virtual environment,” said Burton. “The single point of management (with VCenter) for mid-tier storage arrays is a first. We have never had as extensive a set of integrations with VMware.”

The new interface in software enhancements increases the efficiency of common administrative task in storage management with a “90 percent fewer clicks”.

“If you are running in a virtual environment, you want to make sure that there is a level of integration between the way you manage the storage and the way you manage the server,” said Burton. “By working with VMware, we have about 60 different integration points with the VMware product portfolio.”

Also added are software enhancements that provide FCoE to Clariion and Celerra storage array, and FAST or Fully Automated Storage Tiering capability. According to EMC, it automates the movement of data within a storage system according to tiered policies, to deliver higher service levels while reducing storage acquisition costs.

This alignment of the server and storage goals is an objective many comptitors are striving towards, each with their own attempt at centralizing the many levels of operational virtualization. For EMC especially, a seamless and unified approach is a methodology the company practices and preaches.