So concerned about delivering a storage solution that adequately addressed the needs of the enterprise, Fujitsu Softek Technology Corp. conducted various focus groups with numerous IT managers, CIOs, and storage administrators.
The end result was Fujitsu Softek Storage Manager, a product the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company says is one the first standalone enterprise storage resource management (SRM) solutions that centralizes and automates storage management in a multi-vendor environment from a single point of control.
IT managers want to be able to view and manage storage across platforms from a single console, said Fujitsu Softek President and CEO Steven Murphy. Softek Storage Manager software allows for data storage management via a centralized automated business process view – it’s a true SRM solution, he added.
“Most SRMs focus on one stovepipe in the industry and don’t look at the entire enterprise,” Murphy said. “The fundamental difference between our product and what’s been available in the marketplace is ours allows you to view, find, report and take action all from a common screen.”
The solution features improved automated reporting, along with the ability to forecast storage growth for capacity planning, Fujitsu said, adding the software can generate customizable reports that can be delivered live or via the Web in graphical or tabular format.
When it comes to storage resource management, both the Canadian and U.S. markets are faced with similar issues, Murphy noted. “We’re all suffering from an era of the demands of better utilization, better optimization of existing resources,” Murphy said.
He added the solution allows users to manage all storage investments, including storage area networks (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS), direct-attached storage (DAS), open systems and mainframe storage environments.
“You can take the intelligence, skill, and business process that’s embedded in your organization today and you can leverage that capability by taking a percentage of the workload off the hands of the people you have today so you can do more.”
Servers and storage research manager Alan Freedman at IDC Canada in Toronto noted that when it comes to storage, enterprises are demanding an environment that is both manageable and interoperable.
“Customers are asking for multi-vendor solutions – in fact the customers don’t care how many different vendors they have,” Freedman noted. “What they want is one point of contact. The vendors have begun to realize this and they’ve started to work together…to work on making sure the data can flow within the network of all those components of the network.”
The Fujitsu Softek Storage Manager is available now. Base application pricing starts at US$15,000. Fujitsu can be found at www.softek.fujitsu.com