EMC breaks world records for marketing

EMC attracted 45 journalists and analysts from Asia Pacific and Japan to Singapore this week with the promise of record-breaking announcements.

The storage vendor unveiled 41 new products in three concerted 'megalaunch' events in Singapore, London and New York.

It claimed to break performance records with technology that allowed applications to run three times faster on its newly launched VNX appliance, compared to previous EMC technology.

EMC also unveiled four new Guinness World Records that it had won for marketing stunts ahead of the 'megalaunch'.

Attendees of its Singaporean Record Breakers 2011 event saw a local martial arts group break vinyl records to demonstrate how it broke 38 discs in 30 seconds with EMC's support - beating the previous world record of 23.

In New York, EMC enlisted US dance group Pilobolus to break the world record for the most people in a new-model Mini Cooper. EMC likened the comparison between Mini Cooper and BMW to the relationship between its new, midmarket-focussed VNXe and its enterprise product range.

Twenty-six dancers remained in the Mini Cooper for five seconds, beating the previous record of 25 people (video).

Motorcycle stuntman Bubba Blackwell jumped a Harley-Davidson over 40 EMC VMAX arrays in Miami, Florida, to claim another world record for the company (video).

Meanwhile, at the London Record Breakers event, EMC unveiled the world's largest ball of magnetic tape (photo) to celebrate the decline of tape storage.

Asia Pacific attendees saw footage of all international record breaking attempts besides the magnetic tape ball. According to EMC's backup and recovery systems division president, BJ Jenkins, taped footage of that attempt was lost in the mail.

Liz Tay travelled to Singapore as a guest of EMC.