Veritas Tries To Simplify Storage Management

Veritas Software Corp. will unveil today integrated management software for storage networks and server clusters during its annual Visions user conference in Las Vegas.

Command Central Storage 4.0 and Command Central Availability 4.0 should be available by July. In addition, Veritas will allow web-based access to the management products including a single console to multiple capabilities.

In Storage 4.0, Veritas combines the heterogeneous SAN management of its own SANPoint Control with the storage resource management (SRM) of its Storage Reporter. SRM helps customers cut out wasted storage hardware purchases. In Availability 4.0, the vendor is taking features from its Global Cluster Manager to help with cluster visualization and operational control that could help business technology executives meet service level agreements more efficiently.

Both new products are modules, like building blocks, under the Command Central framework that will also include the Service 4.0 capability that provides the web-based views. The suite will cost around $64,000, and each module should cost around $20,000 on its own.

An industry analyst thinks Veritas is making progress toward automation and simplicity on the way toward utility computing. "Before, customers had to configure each module separately," says Nancy Marrone-Hurley, an analyst at The Enterprise Storage Group. "Now they have point and click capabilities to add features, thanks to multiple levels of integration by Veritas."