Tivoli and CA launch San packages
Tivoli and Computer Associates have both unveiled new software aimed at improving storage management.
Tivoli and Computer Associates (CA) have both unveiled new software aimed at improving storage management.
Robin Pilcher, marketing manager for storage and storage area network (San) management at Tivoli, said its latest Storage Network Manager "allows companies to exploit the San in a managed way".
"It provides not only a tool to manage the storage network, but also delivers the new ANSI (American National Standards Institute) T11 San discovery and management standards, which is what companies have been waiting for," he added.
T11, a standards organisation working with ANSI, created the Fibre Channel Methodologies for Interconnects protocol. This is still in profile status and is not a standard, but is expected to change because of the number of vendors supporting it.
Pilcher said: "The principle of the San will be the way in which companies create their infrastructure in the e-business world."
Instead of a system administrator scribbling down San components on a network, Storage Network Manager can automatically discover the components and their capabilities, he said. The product is expected to be widely available in November.
According to industry analyst Dataquest, IBM subsidiary Tivoli is the second-largest vendor of storage management software after EMC.
Meanwhile, CA is shipping NetWare and Linux versions of its ARCserve 7.0 data protection management suite.
Phil Goodwin, brand manager for storage solutions at CA, said the new versions allow cross-platform support and centralised management for storage networks with NT and Windows 2000. A Unix version is expected to be available by the end of the year.
The company also released its Storage Area Network Integrated Technology Initiative Framework for open San management. The framework integrates and manages San components from multiple vendors and integrates with CA's ARCserve, as well as its Unicenter TNG Framework.
Goodwin said the framework will be shipped mainly through CA's original equipment manufacturer partners.