Softek Announces Enhanced Capabilities for Active Management ESRM Solutions
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb 17, 2004 – Softek a leading provider of storage management software, today announced enhanced versions of its award-winning storage resource management software suite, Softek Storage Manager Version 2.2 and Softek SANView Version 5.2. Key customers for Softek include: Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, British Energy, CN (Canadian National Railway), Harte-Hanks, JCPenney, Lufthansa Systems, MapInfo and Media News Group.
New features for Softek Storage Manager and Softek SANView include:
Extending active management support to additional operating systems
Increased file system scalability and scanning
More flexible and advanced scheduling capabilities
A “Master Console” view for aggregation of information across multiple Softek Storage Manager servers
Automated storage consolidation functionality
Increased SAN management support and reporting for storage arrays and fabric switches.
IT organizations using Softek Storage Manager and Softek SANView can realize significant improvements in time and cost savings over traditional manual storage management methodologies. Multi-vendor, multi-platform storage environments can be centrally managed from a single console. Advanced active management features deliver ‘day-one’ storage reclamation, allowing IT administrators to increase utilization by 50 percent or more and delay future storage purchases. Proactive SAN management capabilities communicate status and performance data for all SAN components in a multi-vendor storage environment, and alert users about potential problems.
“Our customers are demanding innovative, active solutions that enable them to know, clean and optimize their every growing storage environments,” said Karen Dutch, vice president of product management at Softek. “These new product capabilities are part of our continuing efforts to extend our leadership position in storage management by delivering proof, not promises, to help our customers simplify and optimize their existing infrastructures.”
Broader Operating System Support
Softek Storage Manager now supports Novell NetWare 5 and 6 operating systems natively for faster data collection and enhanced scalability in large file system environments. With this support, IT administrators can now apply Storage Manager’s active management policies to their NetWare servers to defer the purchase of additional disk storage capacity.
“Active management support for Novell is a key feature distinguishing Softek from other SRM vendors,” said a Softek customer at an East Coast software and services company. “We have used Softek Storage Manager for more than one year in our extensive Novell NetWare environment to more efficiently manage our existing resources and to delay purchasing additional storage hardware.”
Deferring storage purchases with Softek Storage Manager is accomplished by profiling data and identifying and taking customizable “cleaning” action on contraband data or infrequently used data. The solution’s active management policies also enable users to automatically move data from expensive disk arrays to cheaper classes of storage, such as ATA-based disk arrays and/or tape libraries. Policies can also be implemented to keep the environment clean and optimized going forward.
“Novell is pleased to see a storage resource management product that includes support for NetWare environments,” said Chris Cooper, director of developer services at Novell. “By taking advantage of Novell DeveloperNet and pursuing Novell ‘YES, Tested and Approved’ compatibility certification, Softek is demonstrating its commitment to providing customers the best SRM solutions possible.”
In the new version, NetWare servers, file systems and file structures are distinguished from other supported operating system platforms, which include Windows (NT, 2000, XP, 2003), Solaris (2.6, 7, 8, 9), HPUX (11, 11i), AIX (4.3.3, 5.1, 5.2), Linux and IBM mainframes (OS/390, z/OS).
Improved Scalability
Scalability has also been enhanced in the new version of Softek Storage Manager, enabling operation in significantly larger environments when compared with any other SRM product available on the market today. A more robust and efficient communications capability between Softek Storage Manager and the managed servers increases the number of servers that can be managed to more than 1,000, as well as up to a five fold improvement in data collection speed. File system scanning has been improved by a factor of 10, enabling a single instance to provide active management in environments containing many hundreds of millions of files.
“We are in the process of deploying Softek Storage Manager to scan and actively manage more than several hundred million files in our environment,” said an IT director at a leading provider of electronic design technologies and design services. “Before we purchased, the Softek solution was tested against several solutions from other industry leaders who could not successfully meet our scalability requirements. Softek Storage Manager was the only solution that both scanned and managed at this high file-count level.”
Enhanced Scheduling, Master Console View
An enhanced scheduling feature in Softek Storage Manager provides more flexibility and control for file-level data collection activities, such as when they occur and how often. High-level information, such as only server capacity, can be collected at a user-defined time, which significantly reduces network traffic and overhead.
The new Softek Storage Manager also includes a unique “Master Console” view, which enables IT administrators to aggregate server and file system information across multiple instances of Softek Storage Manager operating simultaneously in highly distributed environments. This convenient and time-saving feature is useful for monitoring and reporting on large, multi-site environments from a single console.
Enhanced Server Consolidation
In support of server and storage consolidation projects, new capabilities within Softek Storage Manager allow IT administrators to easily merge and/or remove servers from the managed environment when they are replaced or when multiple servers are consolidated to a larger system. Merging details about files and file systems also eliminates any rescanning requirements, saving time and increasing IT staff efficiencies.
Improved SAN Management
Improved SAN management support for Softek Storage Manager demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to the integration of combined SRM and SAN management solutions. Softek SANView, which is a component of Softek Storage Manager, provides discovery, topology rendering, health status and monitoring, event escalation, and performance data of all components in a multi-vendor, multi-fabric networked storage environment.
A broader array of information provided by Softek SANView allows IT administrators to view reports on allocated/unallocated storage space from the hardware perspective and also the allocated/utilized ratio from servers. This demonstrates a more complete integration between the two storage management tools and sets the foundation for automated correlation of physical to logical assets planned for future product versions.
Pricing and Availability
Softek Storage Manager Version 2.2 is available now from Softek’s direct sales force and global network of Softek Synergy Partner Program members. Pricing starts at $39,000.
About Softek
Softek delivers award-winning automated storage management solutions operating across more vendors and platforms than any other SRM software. With Softek, customers are able to both simplify and optimize the management of complex, multi-vendor storage infrastructures via action-based automated resource management including space management, storage provisioning, data replication, data migration, performance monitoring, service level management, data recovery and backup. The result is better-utilized storage, more productive staffs, and greater application availability.
Backed by the financial strength of Fujitsu Limited, Softek is distributed globally and offers 24/7 support to more than 700 customers worldwide. For further information, visit http://www.softek.fujitsu.com.