Companies looking to establish a storage area network (SAN) can now take advantage of a free trial before purchase offer from Computer Associates (CA) Africa.
According to Dion Gerrans, storage brand manager for Africa at CA, the offer goes beyond a free software trial to address the complex nature of data storage in the wake of the data explosion in the corporate environment over the past few years.
"In most companies, data storage is assuming a pivotal role. The very serious implications of lost data mean that increased emphasis is being placed on the storage process to ensure that business critical data - e-mails for example - are archived in terms of good corporate governance guidelines.
"Of course, in the event of a disaster, an effective SAN is the key to re-establishing the business and getting it up and running again in the shortest possible time."
With this in mind, CA, through several of its channel partners, is giving potential SAN users the opportunity to come face to face with the realities of data storage and the technologies driving SAN implementations through a free trial offer.
"The build up of critical data that needs to be archived has exposed the need in many companies for a comprehensive storage management plan," notes Gerrans, who maintains that the real issues centre on implementing a sound storage management strategy.
"Storage management is traditionally associated with backup and restore operations - activities that are important, but not critical to corporate well-being.
"Today, storage needs to be a significantly more sophisticated and mission-critical discipline in which access to - and the manipulation of - corporate data are keys to competitive advantage."
CA`s SAN trial offer centres on the company`s BrightStor SAN Manager product, a comprehensive SAN solution that is designed to simplify the administration and troubleshooting of SANs.
"BrightStor SAN Manager makes it easy to discover, visualise, monitor and administer all SAN components from a single point of control. Its graphical interface and sophisticated, policy-based automation facilities simplify the management of even the most extensive environments, thereby maximising system performance and reliability while reducing the risk of costly storage failures," says Gerrans.
"By enabling IT departments to immediately determine how SAN capacity or availability issues relate to critical business processes, BrightStor SAN Manager helps them respond appropriately to any SAN-related event."
Gerrans adds that users can experience the potentially high benefits that SAN technology offers through CA`s trial offering.
* BrightStor SAN Manager integrates with CA`s BrightStor Storage Resource Manager and BrightStor Portal for efficient administration and asset utilisation of the heterogeneous storage environment.
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