Fujitsu Softek's SANView Offers Expanded Support

The company's new SANView version 4.1 is the first version of the storage management software since it was acquired from Fibre Channel switch vendor Vixel last March.

SANView is a SAN fabric management software. It discovers switches, host bus adapters and other storage devices located on the SAN, said Gerard Svartz, product marketing manager at the company.

Once the devices are discovered, SANView draws the topology of the SAN, and then monitors the health of the various devices, Svartz said. It also allows some troubleshooting of the SAN, including offering warning indicators that enable SAN administrators to drill down to the problem-- including determining which port is experiencing difficulties--and resolve the issue before a component fails, he said.

New for version 4.1 is expanded switch support. Since Vixel competed with other switch vendors such as Brocade and McData, that company did not have access to competitors' APIs, said Svartz. However, since Fujitsu Softek is an independent software developer, it has been able to add Brocade APIs to the application, and will add McData APIs in a future patch, he said.

The new version allows the creation of groups of components for easy management, Svartz said. It also collects and reports on past information, not just current information, letting the administrator understand what may have caused a backup failure the night before, he said.

SANView version 4.1 is shipping this week. Pricing depends on the number of managed switch ports and starts at about $12,500 for a 32-port license, said Svartz. For a 128-port SAN, the cost is slightly more than $20,000.

About 25 percent of Fujitsu Softek's products go through indirect channels, but the company's goal is to increase this to up to 40 percent next year and more than 50 percent within the next two to three years, Svartz said.