Opsware Outlines Storage Plan

NEW YORK -- Server and network automation specialist Opsware added more flesh to the bones of its storage strategy at its analyst day today, unveiling a roadmap for managing storage, server, and network devices from a single piece of software.

First up is the vendor's Application Storage Automation System (ASAS), built on technology from Opsware's CreekPath acquisition. (See Opsware Gains CreekPath and Storage Shopping Spree.) "It's going to be [launched] in the middle of the year -- the exact date is still being worked out with engineering," said Eric Vishria, Opsware's vice president of marketing.

Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz explained that CreekPath spent five years developing software to manage different pieces of storage hardware. "They had built connectivity to all the old and Byzantine storage devices out there -- we have taken that and integrated it into our infrastructure."

Software that can tie different parts of the data center together has been something of a pipe dream for users -- IT managers and CIOs have complained about the lack of software that can configure both network and storage devices. This would eliminate the manual configuration errors that cause the bulk of system failures. (See Storage Left Out of CMDB Loop.)

Opsware's Vishria explained that ASAS will give users better visibility into the relationship between their storage and key applications in areas such as e-commerce and financial trading. "If you have to perform maintenance on any of the storage elements such as the array or the storage fabric, you will be able to understand which applications will be impacted."The software will initially be sold as an add-on to Opsware's server automation product and will be priced on a capacity basis. "We haven't finalized our pricing yet, but it will be based on the amount of storage," said Vishria, adding that there will be an additional charge for the piece of management software that actually runs the solution.

Beta tests with customers are about to begin, and Opsware is also building the storage software into an all-singing, all-dancing data center management product to be launched in the third quarter.

Dubbed Opsware System 7, the solution will include server, storage, and network device automation, as well as Opsware's Visual Application Manager (VAM) software for change management. Execs at today's analyst meeting did not say how System 7 will be priced.

The vendor also plans to sell ASAS as a standalone product at some point in the future, although no launch date has been set.

At least one analyst told Byte and Switch that a move into storage is the logical next step for Opsware. "For some of the larger enterprise clients that are starting to standardize on these solutions, it will be an important add-on," said Stephen Elliot, research manager for systems management at IDC.Selling the storage software on its own will be a different story, warned the analyst. "I think that as a standalone it will be a tougher sell," said Elliot, explaining that Opsware will be facing stiff competition from the likes of IBM Tivoli, EMC, and Symantec.

One Opsware customer at today's event explained that he is eager to get his hands on ASAS.

Services giant EDS, which already uses Opsware's software on 65,000 servers and 18,000 network devices, will be using ASAS for its managed services offerings. "We're looking forward to deploying that," said EDS CTO Chris Masse, explaining that ASAS will be used for the vendor's managed storage offerings. "We're [already] using that to deploy micro-code for our EMC storage arrays."

Opsware execs also highlighted emerging technologies such as storage virtualization and iSCSI as bringing additional complexity to the data center. "In storage alone, there will be a new generation of products that will hit the market in the next five years that will make that market more complicated," said Marc Andreesen, the Opsware chairman.

Opsware, which recently coughed up $30 million for process automation startup iConclude, hinted that it will be taking a break from M&A. (See Opsware Opens Up on Storage and Opsware Acquires iConclude.) "I think that we have a fairly complete set of products," said CTO Tim Howes during a Q&A session at the end of the analyst day. "The big focus for the coming year will be the integration of the products that we have."James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch