EMC introduces Automated Resource Manager

EMC has announced EMC Automated Resource Manager software, an open software product that applies the power of automation to greatly reduce the complexity and cost of provisioning storage resources.

"Automated Resource Manager simplifies and accelerates end-to-end storage provisioning by automating the associated manual steps, reducing user errors and ensuring that each application receives the storage it needs based on business requirements," says Alex Robertson, country systems engineering and professional services manager, EMC SA.

A key member of the EMC ControlCenter family of integrated storage management software, Automated Resource Manager enables organisations to quickly and easily define and apply storage service-levels for specific application requirements.

Delivering on EMC`s AutoIS strategy of making multi-vendor networked storage environments simple, automated and open, Automated Resource Manager supports both EMC and non-EMC storage devices including EMC Symmetrix, EMC CLARiiON, and Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks. Additional third-party support is in development.

"Before Automated Resource Manager, a simple request for more storage could take days to fulfil. Now, the same procedure can be completed in minutes," says Robertson. "Automated Resource Manager accelerates IT`s ability to respond to business needs, freeing highly-trained IT staff for more important problems than servicing the latest capacity request."

Automated Resource Manager enables customers to provision storage through user-set policies to support specific business needs. Policy options can be set for type of storage, RAID level, replication parameters, or number of paths between server and storage.

This means customers can assign demanding applications such as On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) the highest levels of storage performance and availability, and assign other service levels to less-critical applications.

The new software also provides for the provisioning and management of heterogeneous storage pools based on geography, application and functional organisation. This capability enables customers to allocate and organise storage based on the way they organise their business.

"Once storage policies and storage pools are created via the ControlCenter console, customers then benefit from automation of the provisioning process - from the storage array through the storage area network to the host computer," Robertson concludes.