Sun Moves To Fill Gaps In SAN Management

The company also plans to unveil modular "rack and stack" additions to its tape library line.

The latest version of Sun's StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager software application fills in gaps in the company's SAN management offering, said Steve Guido, product line manager for Sun's Network Storage Software Group. The application, priced starting at $15,000 and based on capacity managed, now provides a centralized management platform for viewing and managing SAN environments, including SAN topology reporting, device configuration and proactive health monitoring, Guido said.

Also new is the Sun StorEdge Utilization Suite, which allows disk-to-disk archiving and replication over long distances, he said.

StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager is the first application to be compliant with the new Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards, letting it interface with storage hardware and software products from other vendors without the need to exchange APIs on a one-to-one basis, Guido said.

John Murphy, executive vice president of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based Sun solution provider, said that with the StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager, Sun is showing that it's serious about improving its data storage management capabilities after a long lull following the acquisition of HighGround Systems and other software developers.

"When Sun acquired these companies, it lost momentum in the data management space," he said. "So this is a rejuvenation for them. . . . This will help Sun drive sales of its software."

While the new software has some capabilities that work in heterogeneous server platforms, it's still hard for Sun or any hardware vendor to extend beyond their own storage lines, Murphy said.