CA enhances storage management

Computer Associates last week announced enhancements to its storage management software, including a new management console and support for more environments.

The company's BrightStor r11.5 is a set of 13 products for managing, backing up and restoring data from mainframes and distributed systems.

One new component is Storage Command Center, which gives IT staffs a dashboard for managing performance and storage resources. A rules engine will allow IT to establish policies and determine upfront what business processes are going to be affected if a device fails, the company says. The product is to be released this fall. Pricing has not been announced.

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Computer Associates last week announced enhancements to its storage management software, including a new management console and support for more environments.

The company's BrightStor r11.5 is a set of 13 products for managing, backing up and restoring data from mainframes and distributed systems.

One new component is Storage Command Center, which gives IT staffs a dashboard for managing performance and storage resources. A rules engine will allow IT to establish policies and determine upfront what business processes are going to be affected if a device fails, the company says. The product is to be released this fall. Pricing has not been announced.

CA has also upgraded pieces of BrightStor:

An expanded version of ARCserve Backup, data protection software for distributed systems that the company says now has easier setup and better configuration and management tools. The software, which starts at $775, also has simplified disk-to-disk and disk-to-tape operations.

Support for Sybase databases, Lotus Notes and SAP (on Linux), plus Microsoft SharePoint, in Storage Resource Manager (SRM). The SRM, which starts at $2,500, features new caching technology and the capability to monitor and manage midrange disk subsystems from Sun, EMC and HP.

The uniting of software for z/OS, OS/390, MVS, VSE and VM mainframe environments under a single graphical management interface. In addition, the BrightStor z/OS tape management, storage resource management, backup and allocation products are now integrated with CA's Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk, so that problem resolution can take place from a single point. The company's mainframe-based BrightStor CA-Vtape Virtual Tape System has also been enhanced to include disk buffer management, aimed at reducing resource consumption and enhancing performance.

BrightStor's support for a large and growing number of storage environments is what largely sold Glenn Exline on the software. Exline, manager of advanced technology at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Fla., which has Windows and Solaris servers with internal storage attached to EMC Clariion systems via Brocade Fibre Channel Switches.

"When we initially looked at implementing a storage-area network, one of the things we were concerned about was being able to manage that environment," Exline says. "BrightStor was the one tool we found that was the most vendor-agnostic."

BrightStor products are available under several pricing schemes, including a revised plan based on terabytes of storage.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.