RAID levels and EMC drives

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

As a DBA for many years, I am very familiar with the various RAID levels and
the importance of usinhg the proper RAID level based on the I/O, performance
and recoverability requirements of a server.

I am not as familiar with EMC SANs, but am being told that the choice of a
RAID level on an EMC SAN does not matter as much as if you were spec'ing a
RAID array for a traditional non-SAN disk configuration. I specifically was
told that performance differences between RAID 10 and RAID 5 (specifically
related to SQL database implementations) on an EMC SAN are negligible and
that the choice of a specific RAID implementation on an EMC SAN doesn't have
any impact on performance or reliability (in other words if you are using an
EMC SAN, any RAID level will work fine regardless of your IO or
recoverability needs)

I find this very hard to believe. I know that an EMC SAN offers a certain
degree of enhanced performance and redundancy, but I find it very hard to
believe that it neutralizes all RAID levels as being the same.

Can someone with EMC and RAID knowledge clarify, confirm or deny this for me?

Thanks,
Dave