In its Avance 1.5 offering, Stratus is adding upgraded disaster recovery and business continuity features. The high-availability virtualization software lets SMBs connect two x86 servers and run them in a synchronized fashion. With Avance 1.5, businesses can separate the two connected servers by up to 3 miles, protecting the data against localized disasters. Avance 1.5 also features easier management capabilities and iSCSI SAN support for Dell EquilLogic PS5000E storage offerings.
Stratus Technologies is adding business continuity, disaster recovery and administrative enhancements to its Avance high-availability software.
Stratus on May 4 is rolling out the latest version of Avance, which the company introduced a year ago to give SMBs a highly available virtualized environment platform for their x86 systems.
The software offers several advantages over cluster environments, including greater uptime, better protection against data loss and less complexity, said Lee Kaminski, Stratus’ product manager for Avance.
It also eliminates the need to have anyone on-site.
“We have the ability to completely manage Avance remotely [on both virtual and physical machines],” Kaminski said.
The software includes an embedded XenServer hypervisor and runs Windows and Linux operating systems. The software runs over two systems that are connected by an Ethernet link. Those nodes are synchronized and mirrored, and Avance manages the mirroring of business processes between them. If one system goes down, everything automatically fails over to the other system with no interruption.
“We handle that in an automated way,” he said.
Once the first node is repaired, it’s put back online and everything between the two nodes are synced up again.
In Avance 1.5, Stratus is offering its Split-site feature, which lets the paired servers to be separated by as much as 3 miles, which protects against data loss if there is some sort of disaster at one site, such as a fire, lightning strike, structural damage, hardware problems or theft.
“This is the first step toward disaster recovery,” Kaminski said. “We’re starting to move the boxes apart.”
In addition, the new release also offers easier remote management features, such as a single-node installation capability, and iSCSI SAN (storage-area network) support for Dell's EquilLogic PS5000E storage offering. Dell is a reseller of Avance, he said.
Avance 1.5 also lets users boot a Windows virtual machine from a CD or virtual CD, and offers host-level RAID 0, 1 and 5 support and improved documentation.
Avance 1.5 is available now, starting at $5,000.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Hitachi Uses Aptare to Bring Its Storage Portfolio Up to Date
New software options will provide HDS' customers with a more extensive management view beyond the storage system, so they can better monitor and utilize current IT assets tied to business applications, virtualized servers and the data center, according to the company.
Hitachi Data Systems has partnered with storage optimization software provider Aptare in an initiative that modernizes its software portfolio.
HDS said April 28 that it has expanded its management software portfolio with three new offerings: the Hitachi Virtual Server Reporter, supplied by Aptare; Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer, and the Hitachi Storage Command Portal.
The new software options will provide HDS customers with a more extensive management view beyond the storage system, so they can better monitor and utilize current IT assets tied to business applications, virtualized servers and the data center, company officials said.
Aptare, based in Campbell, Calif., provides Web-based storage reporting and management software. It even has an application that allows a user to check a system's storage condition via an iPhone.
The Virtual Server Reporter provides an end-to-end view of virtualized VMware servers and their respective storage usage. The new software, designed for enterprise customers, provides storage reporting management in mixed-environemnt data centers down to control of individual virtual machines, company officials said.
By integrating the reporting functions of virtual servers, customers can more effectively manage their storage and backups, allowing them to obtain better utilization of storage assets and decrease costs, according to the company.
IT Operations Analyzer, aimed at midmarket customers, handles data center management by providing integrated monitoring of data center servers and IP networks, along with fibre channel SANs (storage area networks) and LANs.
The new reporting package features automated root cause analysis, network visualization, agentless architecture to support simple deployment, and a unified intuitive, Web-based interface.
IT Operations Analyzer is designed to streamline IT operations and improve customer service levels. Specialized training is not necessary, company officials said.
"Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer helps manage fast remediation for network issues and outages," said Mary Johnston Turner, an analyst at IT researcher IDC.
The Hitachi Storage Command Portal unifies storage reporting and provides a business-application view of the Hitachi storage environment.
IT Operations Analyzer is available via a 30-day free trial download here.
Hitachi Data Systems has partnered with storage optimization software provider Aptare in an initiative that modernizes its software portfolio.
HDS said April 28 that it has expanded its management software portfolio with three new offerings: the Hitachi Virtual Server Reporter, supplied by Aptare; Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer, and the Hitachi Storage Command Portal.
The new software options will provide HDS customers with a more extensive management view beyond the storage system, so they can better monitor and utilize current IT assets tied to business applications, virtualized servers and the data center, company officials said.
Aptare, based in Campbell, Calif., provides Web-based storage reporting and management software. It even has an application that allows a user to check a system's storage condition via an iPhone.
The Virtual Server Reporter provides an end-to-end view of virtualized VMware servers and their respective storage usage. The new software, designed for enterprise customers, provides storage reporting management in mixed-environemnt data centers down to control of individual virtual machines, company officials said.
By integrating the reporting functions of virtual servers, customers can more effectively manage their storage and backups, allowing them to obtain better utilization of storage assets and decrease costs, according to the company.
IT Operations Analyzer, aimed at midmarket customers, handles data center management by providing integrated monitoring of data center servers and IP networks, along with fibre channel SANs (storage area networks) and LANs.
The new reporting package features automated root cause analysis, network visualization, agentless architecture to support simple deployment, and a unified intuitive, Web-based interface.
IT Operations Analyzer is designed to streamline IT operations and improve customer service levels. Specialized training is not necessary, company officials said.
"Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer helps manage fast remediation for network issues and outages," said Mary Johnston Turner, an analyst at IT researcher IDC.
The Hitachi Storage Command Portal unifies storage reporting and provides a business-application view of the Hitachi storage environment.
IT Operations Analyzer is available via a 30-day free trial download here.
Cassatt Preparing to Shut Its Doors, Report Says
Cassatt, the infrastructure management software company started by BEA Systems founder Bill Coleman, is running out of money, the victim of the global recession and moves by top-tier vendors such as IBM, HP, Dell and Sun in the cloud computer and converged data center arenas. Coleman says he has been shopping Cassatt around with little success and that the company's products may end up being sold in bankruptcy.
About six years ago, Silicon Valley mainstay Bill Coleman—at one time a Sun Microsystems executive, and later a founding member of BEA Systems—started Cassatt.
The company was founded to build software that helps enterprises manage huge and distributed infrastructure environments, and could have played a major role given the rise of cloud computing.
However, according to a published report, Cassatt is on its way out, the victim of the global recession and competition from larger players.
In an interview with Forbes.com April 27, Coleman said Cassatt is nearing the end of its existence, and that he has been looking for a buyer for several months without much success. He didn't name any company he had had talks with, although the Forbes report mentioned Google and Amazon.com having backed off quickly after initial contact. Coleman also said if a buyer isn't found, the company's assets could be sold in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Cassatt apparently has burned through more than $100 million over the past six years, and while some enterprises have shown an interest in the Cassatt Active Response software, few have moved beyond the testing phase.
Click here to read about the enterprise trend toward private clouds.
"What frustrates me is my own naivete," Coleman told Forbes. "I thought I could give companies something radical that had a proven return on investment, and they would be willing to change all their companies' computer policies and procedures to get that. Right now it's hard to get people to get beyond proof-of-concept tests or a data center energy analysis."
Cassatt's impending demise comes at a time when cloud computing and converged data centers are becoming important trends in the industry. Top-tier vendors—including IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Novell and VMware—have unveiled strategies designed to integrate server, storage, networking and software into a single data center entity, fueled in large part by virtualization.
In the same vein, those companies and others, such as Amazon.com and Google, are pushing compute clouds, both internal and public, as a way for businesses to increase their agility and flexibility while reducing operating and capital costs.
Wrapped around all this are management software initiatives from a host of large and smaller vendors designed to handle the increased complexity that these environments will create, similar to what Cassatt was trying to do.
About six years ago, Silicon Valley mainstay Bill Coleman—at one time a Sun Microsystems executive, and later a founding member of BEA Systems—started Cassatt.
The company was founded to build software that helps enterprises manage huge and distributed infrastructure environments, and could have played a major role given the rise of cloud computing.
However, according to a published report, Cassatt is on its way out, the victim of the global recession and competition from larger players.
In an interview with Forbes.com April 27, Coleman said Cassatt is nearing the end of its existence, and that he has been looking for a buyer for several months without much success. He didn't name any company he had had talks with, although the Forbes report mentioned Google and Amazon.com having backed off quickly after initial contact. Coleman also said if a buyer isn't found, the company's assets could be sold in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Cassatt apparently has burned through more than $100 million over the past six years, and while some enterprises have shown an interest in the Cassatt Active Response software, few have moved beyond the testing phase.
Click here to read about the enterprise trend toward private clouds.
"What frustrates me is my own naivete," Coleman told Forbes. "I thought I could give companies something radical that had a proven return on investment, and they would be willing to change all their companies' computer policies and procedures to get that. Right now it's hard to get people to get beyond proof-of-concept tests or a data center energy analysis."
Cassatt's impending demise comes at a time when cloud computing and converged data centers are becoming important trends in the industry. Top-tier vendors—including IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Novell and VMware—have unveiled strategies designed to integrate server, storage, networking and software into a single data center entity, fueled in large part by virtualization.
In the same vein, those companies and others, such as Amazon.com and Google, are pushing compute clouds, both internal and public, as a way for businesses to increase their agility and flexibility while reducing operating and capital costs.
Wrapped around all this are management software initiatives from a host of large and smaller vendors designed to handle the increased complexity that these environments will create, similar to what Cassatt was trying to do.
Trend Micro Acquires Third Brigade for Data Center Security
Trend Micro has signed an agreement to buy Third Brigade to extend its data center protection strategy with virtualization and host intrusion prevention technologies. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.
Trend Micro is extending its data center protection strategy with a planned purchase of server and application security vendor Third Brigade.
According to Trend Micro, the company is buying the business to accelerate its dynamic datacenter security strategy and to provide customers with access to critical security and compliance software and vulnerability response services. The two companies have had an OEM agreement in place for 18 months, with Trend Micro integrating Third Brigade’s intrusion prevention technology into Trend Micro OfficeScan.
“Not only is it the intrusion defense, intrusion detection/prevention capabilities, but also the Web application firewall, application control and reporting and inspection capabilities that Third Brigade brings to Trend Micro that we’re very excited about in dealing with the dynamic data center and the security challenge of those data centers,” said Steve Quane, president of the North America Business Unit and General Manager of SMB at Trend Micro. “We have a lot of enterprise data center customers coming to us asking us to take a leadership position in how both applications are protected and controlled, [and] also on how IDS and IPS technologies and firewalling all work in a virtual environment.”
That’s why the company is excited to extend its Trend Micro ServerProtect product lines with Third Brigade’s technology and leverage Third Brigade’s expertise in securing the data center, he explained during a conference call with analysts and media.
Paul Roberts, an analyst with The 451 Group, said the acquisition bolsters Trend Micro’s capabilities in some areas - host intrusion prevention for one, making it more competitive with McAfee and Symantec. Both those companies made acquisitions in the IPS space a few years back, he noted. More important and intriguing is Trend Micro's push into the data center, virtualization and cloud security space, Roberts said.
“Obviously, this is a vision that’s similar to the one (Symantec) articulated when it acquired Veritas, but stays focused on the core “threat protection” problem rather than recasting Trend as a security + storage vendor,” he opined. “What’s next? They’ll need to do more to develop their data protection story. That could presage some kind of investment in the encryption space. They could also double-down with some kind of database monitoring technology, as well as Web application firewall capabilities to address PCI and the major avenue to all that juicy data in your databases.”
Trend Micro officials said they will continue to develop along the lines of Third Brigade’s existing product road map and will continue to offer its stand-alone products for the near term as well as the companies integrate elements of their portfolios.
The acquisition is subject to certain approvals, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.
Trend Micro is extending its data center protection strategy with a planned purchase of server and application security vendor Third Brigade.
According to Trend Micro, the company is buying the business to accelerate its dynamic datacenter security strategy and to provide customers with access to critical security and compliance software and vulnerability response services. The two companies have had an OEM agreement in place for 18 months, with Trend Micro integrating Third Brigade’s intrusion prevention technology into Trend Micro OfficeScan.
“Not only is it the intrusion defense, intrusion detection/prevention capabilities, but also the Web application firewall, application control and reporting and inspection capabilities that Third Brigade brings to Trend Micro that we’re very excited about in dealing with the dynamic data center and the security challenge of those data centers,” said Steve Quane, president of the North America Business Unit and General Manager of SMB at Trend Micro. “We have a lot of enterprise data center customers coming to us asking us to take a leadership position in how both applications are protected and controlled, [and] also on how IDS and IPS technologies and firewalling all work in a virtual environment.”
That’s why the company is excited to extend its Trend Micro ServerProtect product lines with Third Brigade’s technology and leverage Third Brigade’s expertise in securing the data center, he explained during a conference call with analysts and media.
Paul Roberts, an analyst with The 451 Group, said the acquisition bolsters Trend Micro’s capabilities in some areas - host intrusion prevention for one, making it more competitive with McAfee and Symantec. Both those companies made acquisitions in the IPS space a few years back, he noted. More important and intriguing is Trend Micro's push into the data center, virtualization and cloud security space, Roberts said.
“Obviously, this is a vision that’s similar to the one (Symantec) articulated when it acquired Veritas, but stays focused on the core “threat protection” problem rather than recasting Trend as a security + storage vendor,” he opined. “What’s next? They’ll need to do more to develop their data protection story. That could presage some kind of investment in the encryption space. They could also double-down with some kind of database monitoring technology, as well as Web application firewall capabilities to address PCI and the major avenue to all that juicy data in your databases.”
Trend Micro officials said they will continue to develop along the lines of Third Brigade’s existing product road map and will continue to offer its stand-alone products for the near term as well as the companies integrate elements of their portfolios.
The acquisition is subject to certain approvals, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.
Opalis Brings Cloud, Virtualization Automation to Microsoft System Center
Opalis is readying a set of IT process automation offerings designed to make it easier for users of Microsoft’s System Center management suite to adopt such data center technologies as virtualization, cloud computing and power management. The goal is to automate many of the tasks, policies and best practices for IT administrators using Microsoft’s management suite. The offerings also will give Microsoft greater capabilities as it looks to take on VMware in the virtualization space, Opalis officials say.
Opalis Software is bringing greater IT process automation capabilities to Microsoft’s suite of system management software.
At the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas April 28, Opalis officials announced that their offerings for Microsoft System Center touch on such key data center areas as virtualization, cloud computing and power management capabilities.
The offerings will give System Center users greater ability to orchestrate the technologies within Microsoft’s software suite and automate the best practices for the management of their infrastructures.
Yale Tankus, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Opalis, said customers are demanding greater orchestration capabilities in both their physical and virtual environments, and that Opalis’ offerings within System Center will enable them to more quickly ramp up their virtualization and cloud computing efforts.
HP integrates server management into Microsoft suite.
For Microsoft, it gives the company some more capabilities in its ongoing attempt to gain leverage over VMware in the highly competitive virtualization space, Tankus said in an e-mail. For example, virtualization capabilities Opalis is bringing to Microsoft’s software suite include virtual lifecycle management, including self-serve provisioning, backup, restore and power management. Opalis’ solution—Virtual Service Management—will sit behind Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager, he said.
“So Microsoft is no longer behind VMware in this space,” said Tankus, adding that Opalis is demonstrating the prototype at the Microsoft show.
In the area of cloud computing, Opalis enables System Center users to move resources between private and public cloud environments, and to scale capacity up or down depending on events. They also can automatically failover to cloud resources, which ensure no interruption to services.
The Opalis offerings also integrate with the System Center Operations Manager console and provide users with a rich set of ITIL (information technology infrastructure libraries) policies to find and fix problems. Throughout the process of dealing with an incident, the System Center Operations Manager alert is updated, which gives users greater visibility into the situation and how to deal with it.
The Opalis offerings for System Center will be generally available in the third quarter.
Opalis Software is bringing greater IT process automation capabilities to Microsoft’s suite of system management software.
At the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas April 28, Opalis officials announced that their offerings for Microsoft System Center touch on such key data center areas as virtualization, cloud computing and power management capabilities.
The offerings will give System Center users greater ability to orchestrate the technologies within Microsoft’s software suite and automate the best practices for the management of their infrastructures.
Yale Tankus, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Opalis, said customers are demanding greater orchestration capabilities in both their physical and virtual environments, and that Opalis’ offerings within System Center will enable them to more quickly ramp up their virtualization and cloud computing efforts.
HP integrates server management into Microsoft suite.
For Microsoft, it gives the company some more capabilities in its ongoing attempt to gain leverage over VMware in the highly competitive virtualization space, Tankus said in an e-mail. For example, virtualization capabilities Opalis is bringing to Microsoft’s software suite include virtual lifecycle management, including self-serve provisioning, backup, restore and power management. Opalis’ solution—Virtual Service Management—will sit behind Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager, he said.
“So Microsoft is no longer behind VMware in this space,” said Tankus, adding that Opalis is demonstrating the prototype at the Microsoft show.
In the area of cloud computing, Opalis enables System Center users to move resources between private and public cloud environments, and to scale capacity up or down depending on events. They also can automatically failover to cloud resources, which ensure no interruption to services.
The Opalis offerings also integrate with the System Center Operations Manager console and provide users with a rich set of ITIL (information technology infrastructure libraries) policies to find and fix problems. Throughout the process of dealing with an incident, the System Center Operations Manager alert is updated, which gives users greater visibility into the situation and how to deal with it.
The Opalis offerings for System Center will be generally available in the third quarter.
IBM, Brocade Take Aim at Cisco
IBM for years has been reselling networking products from Brocade, but a new deal expands that partnership into the Internet networking space, an area traditionally dominated by Cisco Systems. The move comes weeks after Cisco announced its UCS data center initiative, which includes Cisco getting into the hardware business, and IBM's new deal with Brocade is seen as a way for IBM to bolster its own integrated data center solutions. Other hardware makers, including HP and Dell, may look for similar deals with smaller networking companies if the IBM-Brocade partnership is successful.
In a move seen to be targeting Cisco Systems, Brocade Communications Systems and IBM announced April 28 that they are expanding their partnership to include Ethernet switching and routing products.
IBM and Brocade said IBM will rebrand and resell Brocade's family of enterprise IP networking products, creating a strong presence in an area that has been led for years by Cisco.
The deal comes just weeks after Cisco announced it was pushing deeper into the data center with its Unified Computing System initiative, a strategy designed to create a more integrated data center solution that includes hardware, networking, storage and software aspects. Some of these products come from Cisco, while others come from partners such as VMware, EMC and Intel.
A key part of the UCS strategy was Cisco announcing that it would make its own blade servers powered by Intel's new Xeon 5500 series chips.
Such rivals as Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems also have made aggressive pushes into the space, and Oracle could become a factor as well if it goes through with its planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun.
"This move follows many other data center consolidation stories we've already had this year (Oracle/Sun, Cisco UCS, etc.) and is being driven by the evolution to Anywhere IT," Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group, said in an e-mail. "It takes a relatively small vendor—Brocade—and gives them a huge distribution channel with IBM. The fact that IBM will be putting its own label on the product makes this much more than a typical reseller relationship."
It also puts pressure on Cisco, Kerravala said.
"OEM relationships are common in storage networking but not in IP networking," he said. "If this move is successful, it could open the door for other server vendors (Dell, Oracle/Sun, etc.) to OEM other smaller network vendors, further disrupting the market that Cisco has had a lock on for years."
IBM and other OEMs, including HP, have been using Brocade's networking equipment for years—and also have been partnering with Cisco. Among the Brocade products IBM already sells are the multiprotocol DCX Backbone SAN (storage area network) offering and Fibre Channel directors, as well as stand-alone and embedded switches, host bus adapters, and related software.
However, the new deal expands on that. Brocade in July 2008 announced it was buying Foundry Networks for $3 billion in a deal that gave it products for building Internet-based networks and made it a stronger competitor to Cisco. The Foundry deal closed in December 2008. Now IBM will resell IP networking products Brocade acquired from Foundry, including the NetIron and FastIron Ethernet routers and switches. Those IBM-branded products are expected to be launched in May.
Other Brocade products will be added to IBM's list over time, Brocade officials said in announcing the deal. IBM and Brocade also will work together on sales, marketing, training and support programs around the products.
Brocade officials say such OEM deals will play a key role in the company's future.
"This agreement with IBM underscores Brocade's long-term commitment to its OEM customers, a strategy we believe delivers the full promise of next-generation enterprise networking solutions in a pragmatic, nonproprietary way to protect customers' IT investments," Brocade CEO Mike Klayko said in a statement.
In a move seen to be targeting Cisco Systems, Brocade Communications Systems and IBM announced April 28 that they are expanding their partnership to include Ethernet switching and routing products.
IBM and Brocade said IBM will rebrand and resell Brocade's family of enterprise IP networking products, creating a strong presence in an area that has been led for years by Cisco.
The deal comes just weeks after Cisco announced it was pushing deeper into the data center with its Unified Computing System initiative, a strategy designed to create a more integrated data center solution that includes hardware, networking, storage and software aspects. Some of these products come from Cisco, while others come from partners such as VMware, EMC and Intel.
A key part of the UCS strategy was Cisco announcing that it would make its own blade servers powered by Intel's new Xeon 5500 series chips.
Such rivals as Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems also have made aggressive pushes into the space, and Oracle could become a factor as well if it goes through with its planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun.
"This move follows many other data center consolidation stories we've already had this year (Oracle/Sun, Cisco UCS, etc.) and is being driven by the evolution to Anywhere IT," Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group, said in an e-mail. "It takes a relatively small vendor—Brocade—and gives them a huge distribution channel with IBM. The fact that IBM will be putting its own label on the product makes this much more than a typical reseller relationship."
It also puts pressure on Cisco, Kerravala said.
"OEM relationships are common in storage networking but not in IP networking," he said. "If this move is successful, it could open the door for other server vendors (Dell, Oracle/Sun, etc.) to OEM other smaller network vendors, further disrupting the market that Cisco has had a lock on for years."
IBM and other OEMs, including HP, have been using Brocade's networking equipment for years—and also have been partnering with Cisco. Among the Brocade products IBM already sells are the multiprotocol DCX Backbone SAN (storage area network) offering and Fibre Channel directors, as well as stand-alone and embedded switches, host bus adapters, and related software.
However, the new deal expands on that. Brocade in July 2008 announced it was buying Foundry Networks for $3 billion in a deal that gave it products for building Internet-based networks and made it a stronger competitor to Cisco. The Foundry deal closed in December 2008. Now IBM will resell IP networking products Brocade acquired from Foundry, including the NetIron and FastIron Ethernet routers and switches. Those IBM-branded products are expected to be launched in May.
Other Brocade products will be added to IBM's list over time, Brocade officials said in announcing the deal. IBM and Brocade also will work together on sales, marketing, training and support programs around the products.
Brocade officials say such OEM deals will play a key role in the company's future.
"This agreement with IBM underscores Brocade's long-term commitment to its OEM customers, a strategy we believe delivers the full promise of next-generation enterprise networking solutions in a pragmatic, nonproprietary way to protect customers' IT investments," Brocade CEO Mike Klayko said in a statement.
HP Integrates Server Management with Microsoft Suite
HP Integrates Server Management with Microsoft Suite
HP is integrating its Insight Control systems management software into Microsoft's System Center suite, a move HP officials say will bring simplicity to an increasingly complex data center environment. The ICE-SC move will enable HP ProLiant and BladeSystem users who have opted for Microsoft's management suite to take better advantage of the myriad hardware and software capabilities HP is offering through its Adaptive Infrastructure data center initiative. It also brings greater technical support, a key issue for HP customers.
Hewlett-Packard is integrating its Insight Control systems management software suite into Microsoft's System Center offering, the latest move by the systems vendor in its integrated data center initiative.
HP officials said the move to integrate the server management features of HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers into Microsoft's consoles will give IT administrators greater visibility into and management of their data center environments. HP announced the integration April 28.
"The focus here is that we're reaching out to customers who have chosen Microsoft System Center as their overarching management system," said Jeff Carlat, director of marketing for HP's Infrastructure Software and BladeSystem business.
HP's Adaptive Infrastructure initiative is designed to improve performance and flexibility in the data center while reducing complexity and costs. The company has kept up a steady drumbeat of announcements around the strategy, most recently introducing its BladeSystem Matrix, an all-in-one package that combines server, storage, networking and software, linked through HP's Virtual Connect technology.
Competitors such as IBM, Dell, Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems have unveiled similar initiatives around the idea of converged data centers.
Take a look at the building blocks for Cisco's UCS strategy.
Carlat said the integration move with Microsoft is another step in simplifying the data center environment, where such technologies as virtualization and advanced networking capabilities are making things more unwieldy for IT administrators.
"We are seeing a high level of complexity popping up in the data center," he said.
Integrating the HP management capabilities into Microsoft's System Center—in what HP is calling its Insight Control suite for Microsoft System Center, or ICE-SC—will let ProLiant and BladeSystem users who have opted for Microsoft's software suite take advantage of the capabilities HP has to offer, Carlat said.
Until now, HP was like most of its competitors in offering basic integration into Microsoft System Center, Carlat said. However, the deeper integration of Insight Control means IT administrators can make better use of such HP technologies as the myriad sensors in the new ProLiant G6 servers—released in March in conjunction with Intel's rollout of its new Xeon 5500 series chips. Through the System Center console, users can monitor the information coming in from the sensors.
HP is integrating its Insight Control systems management software into Microsoft's System Center suite, a move HP officials say will bring simplicity to an increasingly complex data center environment. The ICE-SC move will enable HP ProLiant and BladeSystem users who have opted for Microsoft's management suite to take better advantage of the myriad hardware and software capabilities HP is offering through its Adaptive Infrastructure data center initiative. It also brings greater technical support, a key issue for HP customers.
Hewlett-Packard is integrating its Insight Control systems management software suite into Microsoft's System Center offering, the latest move by the systems vendor in its integrated data center initiative.
HP officials said the move to integrate the server management features of HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers into Microsoft's consoles will give IT administrators greater visibility into and management of their data center environments. HP announced the integration April 28.
"The focus here is that we're reaching out to customers who have chosen Microsoft System Center as their overarching management system," said Jeff Carlat, director of marketing for HP's Infrastructure Software and BladeSystem business.
HP's Adaptive Infrastructure initiative is designed to improve performance and flexibility in the data center while reducing complexity and costs. The company has kept up a steady drumbeat of announcements around the strategy, most recently introducing its BladeSystem Matrix, an all-in-one package that combines server, storage, networking and software, linked through HP's Virtual Connect technology.
Competitors such as IBM, Dell, Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems have unveiled similar initiatives around the idea of converged data centers.
Take a look at the building blocks for Cisco's UCS strategy.
Carlat said the integration move with Microsoft is another step in simplifying the data center environment, where such technologies as virtualization and advanced networking capabilities are making things more unwieldy for IT administrators.
"We are seeing a high level of complexity popping up in the data center," he said.
Integrating the HP management capabilities into Microsoft's System Center—in what HP is calling its Insight Control suite for Microsoft System Center, or ICE-SC—will let ProLiant and BladeSystem users who have opted for Microsoft's software suite take advantage of the capabilities HP has to offer, Carlat said.
Until now, HP was like most of its competitors in offering basic integration into Microsoft System Center, Carlat said. However, the deeper integration of Insight Control means IT administrators can make better use of such HP technologies as the myriad sensors in the new ProLiant G6 servers—released in March in conjunction with Intel's rollout of its new Xeon 5500 series chips. Through the System Center console, users can monitor the information coming in from the sensors.
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