While VMware Inc. is reportedly scaling back the development of new features for its infrastructure-as-a-service platform, parent company EMC Corp. is doing the exact opposite and expanding its footprint in the public cloud with a major update to its data protection portfolio. The main highlight is a new iteration of the FAST.X tiering service that enables administrators to move information off-premise not only from the company’s own arrays but also third party hardware.

The launch is part of a broader effort from EMC to provide organizations with more freedom of choice in how they employ its technology. The posterchild of the initiative is the company’s ViPR software-defined storage platform, which can be used with systems from rivaling vendors so long as they provide block-based data access. Its ScaleIO software for managing server-side flash drives is hardware-agnostic too, as is the NetWorker data protection suite, which is also receiving new functionality as part of today’s update.

Customers now have access to what EMC describes as a “universal policy engine” that promises to centralize the implementation of configuration changes, a potentially major convenience in large environments. Joining the release is a new version of the complementary CloudBoost service that can ship off snapshots created using NetWorker to an organization’s infrastructure-as-a-service platform of choice up to three times faster than the previous iteration, according to the company. The addition promises to help administrators make much more efficient use of their time when coupled with the new support for parallel backup operations introduced in conjunction.

Rounding out the launch is an update to the final component of EMC’s cloud-based data protection lineup, the Spanning backup service for Office 365, Google Apps and Salesforce.com it gained through the acquisition of the company of the same name last year. European customers now have the ability to store copies of their files within the borders of the EU in order to make meeting data regulations less of a chore and allay potential privacy concerns among end-users.

Photo via Alexis