VERITAS Software announces strategic SAN Consulting Services

VERITAS Software has announced SANPoint Consulting, a multi-faceted consulting plan comprised of SAN Assessment Services, SAN Design Services and SAN Software Deployment Services. The company is now lending its expertise to businesses as they search for new storage solutions that exploit Fibre Channel SANs. Through the SAN Assessment Service, consultants analyse the customer`s current storage strategy and recommend improvements based on the customer`s business needs.

With the additional SAN Design and SAN Software Deployment Services, VERITAS Software assures a faster implementation with unbiased purchase advice of SAN components and premier installation assistance. SANPoint Consulting allows enterprise customers to take advantage of a wide variety of potential SAN configurations and speeds up the implementation of successful SANs.

"The acceptance of SANs as a solution to increase data availability is mainstream. VERITAS Software has been at the forefront of this new technology, deploying its SAN applications world-wide in combination with tested Fibre Channel infrastructures," says Nick van Noordwyk, regional manager, Middle East and Africa at VERITAS Software.

The VERITAS SAN Assessment Service begins with the customer`s business strategy and leads them to the point where a Request For Proposal for SAN design can be written. In the first step of a three-step process, VERITAS Software examines the customer`s present and future business objectives. VERITAS Software then analyses the customer`s existing storage environment.

Information gathered from these first two steps is then leveraged to define and produce the final strategy, which includes the protection of current storage environment investment, as well as the introduction of new components. At the conclusion of the SAN Assessment Service, the customer is informed of recommendations for high-level design concepts, performance conclusions, and enterprise-wide data consolidation options as they match against his/her business objectives.

The VERITAS SAN Design Service creates a storage plan that meets the business objectives defined in the SAN Assessment Service. From the SAN Design Service, customers will walk away with a logical and physical SAN blueprint with storage resource placement, hardware and software-component recommendations, proof-of-concept test criteria, and results and work breakdown structure for implementation. Consultants help reduce the risk of new technology and pass along cost savings to the customer. The SAN Design Service assures a faster implementation with unbiased hardware purchase advice and the recommendation of specific, tested and verified components. VERITAS Software consultants produce a storage design providing optimum access to business-critical data.

The VERITAS SAN Software Deployment Service provides the assistance required to install, configure and maintain various VERITAS Software SAN application components. These applications include VERITAS Backup Exec Shared Storage Option, VERITAS NetBackup Shared Storage Option, VERITAS Volume Manager, VERITAS Cluster Server software and the recently announced SANPoint Control and VERITAS Storage Appliance software. By offering VERITAS Storage Appliance deployment services, this product is now also available to direct VERITAS Software customers.

VERITAS Enterprise Consulting Services (ECS) help to minimise risks while enabling the rapid deployment of new data management solutions and increasing data availability world-wide. VERITAS ECS quickly mobilises global capabilities to provide "Business Without Interruption" by leveraging VERITAS Software`s experience and human resources.