Storage: HP To Deliver Enterprise-class Storage Area Network Management Solution; Solution to Leverage HP's Network, Systems and Storage Management Expertise - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Nov 2, 1998

Hewlett-Packard Company Monday unveiled its Storage Area Network (SAN) management roadmap, indicating that it would leverage its industry-leading HP OpenView Network Node Manager technology to deliver the highest-possible levels of scalability and manageability for enterprise-class SAN implementations.

HP said it expects to deliver the first in a range of new and enhanced storage solutions for the emerging SAN management market next spring. The company said its SAN management offering would be differentiated by the ability to do the following: o provide automatic discovery of devices connected to a SAN; o support multidimensional graphical representations of the network; o manage arbitrated loop configurations as well as fabrics, and o deliver advanced Fibre Channel management capabilities, together with HP Enterprise Storage Solutions. A SAN is like a LAN in that it establishes high-speed connections between storage elements and servers or clients, offloading resources from the primary network. When hubs and switches are introduced, resource management becomes difficult, thereby creating the need for advanced management solutions. "The adoption of SAN technology across open systems in the data center is inhibited by the lack of robust management tools," said Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corporation. "With its proven network- and systems-management experience for global organizations, the HP OpenView enterprise-management suite has the opportunity to lead the enterprise-class SAN management market and enable this important technology." HP's SAN strategy includes working closely with other leading suppliers to ensure compatibility. "OpenView's proven success in traditional storage management makes it a logical choice for customers moving to Fibre Channel SAN environments," said Marylin Edling, general manager of HP's Enterprise Storage Solutions Division. "Manageability is an essential component of an effective SAN, and OpenView helps us deliver high-availability SANs that are stress-free." "Heterogeneous storage networks will be possible only through tight collaboration between the major providers," said Robert Dutkowsky, EMC's executive vice president of Markets and Channels. "EMC is dedicated to working with market leaders such as HP to ensure that management of enterprise storage can be achieved via emerging Fibre Channel technology." HP Delivers Enterprise Backup and Restore Solution The HP OpenView SAN management solution will complement HP OpenView storage-management products, such as the new HP OpenView OmniBack II, release 3.0, which is now shipping. HP OpenView OmniBack II 3.0 is first to market with support for Microsoft Cluster Server environments. It also includes the following: o support for backup and restore over Fibre Channel and high-performance disaster recovery on Windows NT; and o additional integration with EMC business-continuance solutions, Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) and TimeFinder, to continue the HP OpenView OmniBack's leadership in providing the highest level of business continuity through zero-downtime backup. HP is one of the world's largest providers of integrated network-, application-, storage-, security-, deployment- and service-management solutions. HP OpenView solutions are at work in more than 100,000 multivendor distributed computing environments worldwide. Together with offerings from more than 200 partners, HP OpenView offers a complete portfolio of services and management solutions on all major platforms. Information about HP OpenView solutions can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.openview.hp.com. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.