EMC has enhanced its Enterprise Storage Network (ESN) solutions with the introduction of new management software for mixed-vendor information storage networks. The new software, ESN Manager, is the latest addition to EMC`s family of information storage software and unifies and streamlines management of heterogeneous information storage networks, providing a single point of management for storage area network (SAN) configuration and control.
"This powerful, integrated functionality reduces information storage network deployment time, enhances the productivity of IT management staff, and speeds customers` ROI - return on information," says Graham Prime, field product manager at EMC SA.
As a result of exhaustive testing at EMC`s e-Lab testing centre, specified Compaq, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Hitachi disk storage systems and Storage Technology (STK) tape systems have been qualified to interoperate in mixed-vendor ESN-managed environments. This qualification ensures true "side-by-side" operation of these platforms in the same information storage network, enabling customers to leverage resources fully in mixed-vendor environments without needing to perform their own complex testing.
"As information becomes increasingly crucial to business success, more and more applications are becoming mission-critical. In growing numbers, organisations are moving these applications to the EMC E-Infostructure. By qualifying non-EMC storage to coexist in the enterprise storage network, EMC helps customers achieve this goal easily and effectively, enabling them to protect technology investments by re-using existing non-EMC storage for non critical applications," says Prime.
"Due to the overwhelming growth of information, organisations are implementing storage networks faster than anyone could have anticipated.
As users deploy SANs to consolidate IT resources into shared, virtual storage infrastructures, they look to industry leaders such as EMC to deliver innovative tools for managing their storage networks from a single, central point of intuitive, automated control. ESN Manager is delivering the needed functionality at a time when qualified IT staff shortages have become a major issue for many enterprises," says John Webster of Illuminata, Inc., a market research firm based in Nashua, N.H ESN Manager provides a single, simplified point of control for managing the complex tasks of zoning and volume access. Users can quickly and easily create and manage groups, or "zones," of logical networked storage devices, including EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems, ESN connectivity devices and servers. For example, using a single, intuitive tool, administrators can flexibly create multiple zones on EMC Connectrix, McDATA and Brocade Fibre Channel connectivity devices. Devices assigned to one zone can communicate only with other devices in the same zone, enabling storage managers to manage access to shared storage network resources and provide the highest levels of storage network performance and availability.
"Users can dynamically and securely allocate specific Symmetrix-based data volumes to specific or multiple servers or business units. This feature shields important information from inadvertent access by host servers that may attempt to access protected volumes," Prime says.
"ESN Manager`s exclusive Autopathing feature enables administrators to perform both centralised zoning and dynamic volume access control across multiple paths with a single set of operations."
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