AppIQ has added a host of new features to its standards-based storage management software.
Based on SMI-S, the Storage Networking Industry Association’s storage management standard, the renamed StorageAuthority Suite adds new capabilities for file server storage resource management (SRM), heterogeneous device support, provisioning, and backup and recovery management, according to the company.
The Burlington, Mass.-based company says its StorageAuthority software advances the firm’s goal of managing storage as an application-focused utility, calling it “the first solution to deliver application-to-spindle capacity and performance management for the most common messaging, database, and file server platforms.”
John Webster, senior analyst and founder of Data Mobility Group, believes AppIQ is a “great example of two things: Application awareness and SMI-S implementation.”
AppIQ feels its decision to base its software on SMI-S is paying off by allowing the company to focus on advanced features.
“Our decision to build our management platform on the SMI-S and CIM industry standards is starting to pay huge dividends in our ability to rapidly deliver new features on top of this strong foundation,” says AppIQ CTO Ash Ashutosh.
At the core of the new release is an SRM module called StorageAuthority for File Servers, which is based on technology gained from AppIQ’s recent acquisition of start-up XstormTech.
StorageAuthority for File Servers sends alerts when share points and file systems are about to run out of space; pinpoints what file types, aged files, and large files can be deleted or archived to free up capacity; identifies which users are exceeding disk space quotas; generates topologies that show which physical disk subsystems can be ‘seen’ from each file server based on SAN zones; and provisions new capacity at the host, switch, and disk subsystem levels.
It also lets administrators schedule downtime and respond to unplanned downtime by showing the dependencies of file servers, users, and files on HBAs, switches, and disk subsystems.
AppIQ has also broadened its device and operating system support to include Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HDS Dynamic Link Manager, EMC, additional Brocade and
LSI Logic firmware revisions, and SGI’s recently introduced InfiniteStorage solutions.
StorageAuthority for VERITAS NetBackup gives an enterprise-wide view of backup and recovery infrastructure and provides auto-discovery and visualization of backup resources, success and failure metrics for full and incremental backups, warning and error reports, and individual file-level drill-down features that aid administrators in identifying unprotected data and improving efficiency.
AppIQ also offers StorageAuthority for Oracle and Microsoft Exchange, as well as chargeback and provisioning modules.
The AppIQ StorageAuthority Suite will be available next month. Pricing starts at $60,000 (MSRP) for StorageAuthority Manager and its two operations modules (StorageAuthority Provisioning and StorageAuthority Chargeback), $20,000 for StorageAuthority for File Servers, and $2,500 for the StorageAuthority for Oracle and StorageAuthority for Exchange application modules.
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