Veritas Software enhanced its CommandCentral storage management software and services Tuesday at Veritas Visions, its annual user conference.
CommandCentral now includes CommandCentral Storage 4.0 and CommandCentral Availability 4.0, as well as a new version of CommandCentral Service, which gives IT managers a portal from which they can view consumption and manage service levels and costs.
CommandCentral Service 4.0 adds a user-customizable workflow/automation engine, which allows IT managers to model, publish, execute and automate the provisioning of storage or set up data protection services.
Analysts reacted favorably to Veritas' vision for storage management.
"We'll see more focus on workflow and service management later this year," says Jamie Gruener, senior analyst for the Yankee Group. "Veritas is the first, but other vendors will follow. The workflow engine allows customers to start to automate provisioning of storage."
CommandCentral Storage provides path management from the application to the array. It combines Veritas' storage area network management software, SANPoint Control, with the company's storage resource management software, Storage Reporter.
CommandCentral Availability assures that applications are highly available and increases IT staff productivity. It provides viewing of storage/server clusters and gives IT operational control so service-level agreements can be met.
Further, the company detailed a roadmap for the integration of the Ejasent products it acquired in January. Veritas will introduce MicroMeasure, software that allows usage-based metering of storage and charge-back billing. By the end of the year, MicroMeasure will be available as part of a future version of CommandCentral Service. Ejasent's UpScale, which allows applications to move from one server to another without disruption, will be added to Veritas Cluster Service in the first half of 2005.
CommandCentral Storage 4.0, CommandCentral Availability 4.0 and CommandCentral Service 4.0 are expected to be available in July. The individual modules start at US$20,000.