Aptare Now Automating Storage Management Changes

Enterprise storage resource management maker Aptare, taking a cue from the antivirus sector, on Feb. 2 unveiled some new enhancements for its unified storage management product suite.

Instead of manually configuring changes in the storage capacity and planning-information-gathering system, users now can simply subscribe to an automatic download of updated rules as they become available.

The StorageConsole 8 Feature Pack One features a smart, agentless host data collector for enterprise storage environments. This new collector can apply multiple methods at once in order to capture storage capacity metrics from the hosts and heterogeneous storage systems, wherever they may be in the enterprise.

The collector "learns" and optimizes the system's data collection for scheduled collections. Data parsing and interpretation rules are separated from the core logic of the agentless data collector in the same way that virus protection software vendors use virus signatures and their rules files.

When the rules become changed or updated, they immediately are available for download from the Aptare portal on a 24-hour basis.

"This next-generation architecture is designed to expect change," Rick Clark, President and CEO of Campbell, Calif.-based Aptare, told eWEEK.

"By using an architecture that adapts to change and decouples the parsing and data interpretation rules from the core collection logic, we can stay ahead of storage configurations and provide true and accurate business intelligence and metrics to our customers."

Aptare StorageConsole Capacity Manager also includes support for EMC virtual -- or thin -- provisioning for Clariion and Symmetrix arrays. It also sports capacity management support for EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage arrays, Clark said.

Aptare StorageConsole Backup Manager also has been enhanced to include comprehensive support for Data Domain deduplication systems, Clark said.