From Storage to Server, HP Builds a Bridge

Looking to become the first large systems vendor to bridge the gap between storage and servers, HP introduced the next generation of its storage resource management software, a suite that integrates with the company’s server management tools.

Storage Essentials is a set of software plug-ins designed to alleviate the

pain points associated with bridging islands of storage and server gear from

different vendors and making them seamlessly work together, said Richard

Escott, director of storage management at HP.

Storage Essentials offers SAN management, storage resource

management, provisioning and application infrastructure monitoring. The

product is based on the StorageAuthority Suite product line from AppIQ, with which HP has an OEM partnership.

Together, these are many of the characteristics and tools used for utility

computing environments, where computing resources are piped to and from

machines on an on-demand basis, based on computing requirements. HP uses

these tools for its Adaptive Enterprise strategy for computing that adjusts

to business needs on the fly.

Escott said the unity of storage and server environments seems to be where

the industry is headed based on software advancements. He said IBM , Sun Microsystems and Veritas Software have all outlined goals along the same path — they just haven’t

reached them yet.

“No other vendor is providing consolidated storage and server management

that is this tightly integrated,” said Steve Duplessie, senior analyst at

Enterprise Strategy Group, in a statement.

Storage Essentials can’t do much alone, so its modules integrate with HP

System Insight Manager, the company’s basic server and storage management

platform. The Palo Alto, Calif., company offers Insight Manager for free in

large part because it is based on open source technologies like JBoss

application server and PostgreSQL database.

Storage Essentials will not be free but pricing depends on the scope of

installation. The software, the first storage product on the company’s

roadmap for a unified server and storage management architecture, is

designed to eventually replace HP’s OpenView Storage Area Manager.

Available March 28, Storage Essentials supports Windows, Linux and HP-UX, Solaris, IBM-AIX, and IRIX, as well as J2EE, SMI-S, WBEM and WMI standards.