Sun in SA drive to solve disparate storage systems problems

Sun Microsystems has released storage area network (SAN) management software designed to help lower the total cost of storage ownership (TCO) and provide a centralised management platform for viewing and managing storage environments.

The software is already being implemented at a number of sites in SA as many local companies are in a situation where they have a series of unmanaged disparate storage architectures.

Kobus Landsberg, systems engineer at Sun Microsystems SA, says very few companies have a single SAN strategy because so many of them are using disparate storage equipment from varied manufacturers and suppliers.

"Until now there has been no software available to manage these varied storage systems, but this new software from Sun makes it possible, for the first time, to create an integrated storage management platform.

"Sun's strategy has always been to adhere to standards wherever possible, allowing seamless integration with products from other vendors which have similar open standards policies. This procedure, which has been further continued with SunONE's Open Vision strategy, allows users to take advantage of the best features from different products leading to higher levels of productivity and lower cost of ownership," says Landsberg.

The "single pane of glass" incorporates the core management services of SAN topology reporting, device configuration, and proactive health monitoring and diagnostics - helping users increase uptime and improve service levels. With the introduction of enterprise storage manager (ESM) software, Sun is delivering one of the most comprehensive storage management software portfolios in the industry. It encompasses SAN and systems management, data continuance, and file and volume management.

As the industry's first system vendor to deliver a Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM)-compliant SAN management platform, Sun is demonstrating its leadership in delivering on the demand for simplified SAN management.

Unlike proprietary Application Program Interface (API) exchanges conducted by some vendors, standards compliance will enable customers to quickly and easily leverage new storage technologies, products and solutions as they emerge from Sun and other vendors.

"Customers are demanding simpler, integrated and open storage management and Sun is delivering on those demands," says Landsberg, adding that Sun's new StorEdge ESM software combines the three most common storage management tasks into a single pane of glass.

"By integrating these functions, our customers will see real savings in administration costs and greater uptime as health problems discovered by the diagnostic expert can be acted on immediately without changing tools."

Working side by side with best-of-breed storage partners like Hitachi Data Systems, Qlogic and Brocade, Sun has achieved a new level of interoperability designed to provide customers with ease of deployment and increased manageability, supportability and scalability.

"Open standards are imperative in order to give users the ability to get chaotic environments under control. Sun is the first major player to deliver on the promise of those standards," says Seve Kenniston, analyst with Enterprise Storage Group.

The new software is available for the Solaris Operating Environment and is accessible from Linux, HP-UX, and other hosts remotely in a Web-enabled environment.