[2] Yanai began his career building IBM-compatible mainframe data storage based on minicomputer disks for Elbit Systems (a joint project with Nixdorf Computer).

[9] His development team grew from several people, recruited among his former Israeli colleagues, to thousands, while he was vice president.

[12] Enterprises such as banks who depend on performance and big data found Symmetrix to be essential for their work.

Later on, Symmetrix remote replication feature prevented financial chaos in New York Stock Exchange and certain banks after the September 11 attacks, as described by Barron's who called the SRDF “the true hero of 9/11”.

This appreciation of Symmetrix and SDRF is based on the fact that "EMC has 25 customers in the World Trade Center... with another dozen in the immediate vicinity".

[4] Yanai also funded and led an Israeli storage startup company, XIV,[14] which was bought by IBM in January 2008.