When it comes to storing data, Sun Microsystems says it wants to be as open on its position as possible.
So the Palo Alto, Calif.-based networking giant Tuesday unveiled its new StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager (ESM) software based on open standards technology like Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM).
Calling it a “single pane of glass,” the company said the storage area network (SAN) software provides a centralized management platform for viewing and managing storage environments.
ESM is currently available with pricing starting at $15,000 and follows a tiered, capacity-based volume pricing model.
“Customers are demanding simpler, integrated and open storage management and Sun is delivering on those demands,” said Sun director of Network Storage James Staten. “Sun’s new StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager 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.”
The new software is based on Sun’s Storage One strategy and is built on the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE). The company said the new software also serves as a key element to Sun’s fully integrated, open SAN architecture.
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.
Sun has been working for a couple of years now on the open WBEM/CIM-based standards for storage management – working side by side with partners like Hitachi Data Systems, Qlogic and Brocade.
“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,” said Steve Kenniston, analyst with Enterprise Storage Group.
Also as part of its open SAN management solution, Sun took the wraps off two new products – the Sun StorEdge L25 and L100 tape libraries.
The new tape libraries offer high capacity in a small space and are used in conjunction with Sun’s other file sharing capabilities. Tape for a data library is a nice touch because it lets customers simplify the backup and recovery process. The new devices also come bundled with consulting, training and support from Sun Services.
Sun’s push is predicated on two notions. On the one hand, the firm realizes the market opportunities involved with storage systems to support data, voice, text, and multi-media — storage array, which IDC said will hit $25 billion in 2002; on the other, the networking giant’s previous attempts at storage had been relatively woeful compared to the progress of IBM, EMC and Compaq.
The StorEdge news is also a boost to the development of open standards like CIM and WBEM – a broad industry initiative launched in July, 1996, by BMC Software Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp., and Microsoft Corp. CIM, evolved from HMMS (HyperMedia Management Schema). The technology covers the processes associated with handling multiple customer communication touchpoints, including telephony, e-mail, and Web site interactions. Through functionality such as intelligent routing and queuing, CIM solutions provide an integrated view of a company’s customer communications.