Tivoli Systems is trying to help IT managers integrate storage-area network technology into their enterprise management systems.
Yesterday, at the Planet Tivoli North America conference, the company updated its storage management software and announced partnerships with IBM rivals EMC and Compaq. The company also showcased a "SAN city" on the floor of the show to demonstrate Tivoli's ability to manage heterogeneous storage devices from a central console.
The live display contained an IBM Enterprise Storage Server (Shark), an EMC Symmetrix box and storage gear from vendors StorageTek, Brocade and Ancor, all managed using Tivoli products.
Tivoli announced Storage Manager 4.1. Among the software's new features is the ability to handle automatic backup and tape sharing. Storage Manager 4.1 also has added a so-called LAN-free management feature, which allows servers and storage devices to move data through SAN pipes instead of over a LAN. This takes traffic off the LAN and speeds up the back-up and restoration process, Tivoli says.
Also coming to Storage Manager is the ability to exploit EMC's TimeFinder technology. TimeFinder is a software feature in the Symmetrix box that lets IS staff take a snapshot of the data running there at various intervals. The snapshots are stored on dedicated TimeFinder disks in the box, and allow for high-speed backup of data for heavy-duty applications such as SAP's enterprise resources planning software, as well other network files.
Tivoli also will provide a development tool kit to tie SAN management tools to NetView, its enterprise management application.
On the partnership front, Compaq will now sell and service Tivoli Enterprise products. IBM will also train 300 Compaq engineers to work on Tivoli products.
Tivoli Storage Manager 4.1 starts at $US2000 and will be available in July; it runs on Unix, Windows NT/2000 and OS/390.