Enterprise Storage<br>Legato Invests in HighGround for Web-Based Storage Analysis
Legato Systems Inc. and HighGround Systems Inc. announced a partnership to deliver an integrated data protection and disk storage analysis solution designed to manage fast-growing e-business storage infrastructures.
Legato (www.legato.com) will use HighGround’s (www.highground.com) Web-engineered Storage Resource Manager (SRM) storage reporting and event management technology for Windows NT, Unix, Linux, and Microsoft Exchange platforms in the Legato Global Enterprise Management of Storage (GEMS) product family.
The partnership also includes an OEM agreement through which Legato will distribute HighGround’s SRM technology in new product options for Legato’s GEMS product family and a multimillion dollar investment in HighGround by Legato.
HighGround will use the funds to enhance its Storage Resource Manager product line and expand its sales, marketing, customer support, and product development operations.
Legato says SRM will be a critical component of its cross-platform Information Continuance strategy. The Legato Continuum focuses on providing companies with solutions to make mission-critical information available whenever and wherever it is needed on the required platform. Legato’s solutions are designed to accomplish three fundamental tasks: protecting information, moving information, and managing information.
Storage Resource Manager’s abilities to discover, analyze, report on, and forecast enterprise disk capacity, use, and availability will enhance GEMS’ ability to provide central management and control of distributed storage resources and data protection processes.
Tom Rose, vice president of advanced marketing at HighGround, says SRM’s Web-based implementation uses Windows NT components, such as IIS, SQL Server, and DCOM. The resulting ease of installation, use, and maintenance are reasons customers are choosing HighGround SRM over older products ported from mainframe environments, he says.
The companies claim that the combination of HighGround’s predictive reporting and event management capabilities and Legato’s data protection capabilities let customers improve end user service levels, roll out new applications faster, maintain a repository of storage intelligence that persists through IT staff turnover, and reduce the cost of storage ownership by planning and optimizing backup policies.
"Legato’s partnership with HighGround fills a strategic position in Legato’s SAN and storage resource management product portfolio and further elevates HighGround’s position as the market leader in storage resource management software," says Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corp. (www.sresearch.com).