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iLumin Software Services Inc. is expanding its reach with the introduction of a new product designed to provide storage management and discovery for files other than e-mail.
The Reston, Va., company, which traditionally has focused on e-mail archiving and management, has introduced AFSM (Assentor File System Manager), an addition to the companys Assentor product family.
The agentless system, which works in most operating system environments, combines functionality generally found in SRM (storage resource management) tools as well as features found in records management, classification and reporting tools.
The resulting product allows organizations to classify files based on frequency of access, file type and other factors, using established classifications and policies to dictate file movement, copy and delete actions.
Files are stored on the appropriate tier of storage and migrated to other levels based on the companys internal policies.
Other features include automated storage consolidation and a feature called policy simulation that allows organizations to see the effects of data management policies before putting them into effect.
One of the goals of introducing this product, said Mike Gundling, iLumins senior vice president of product management, was expanding the companys reach into storage management and ILM (information lifecycle management).
“We have the enterprise message management features when it comes to e-mail management, but we were lacking the ability to add value meaningfully to files other than e-mail,” he said.
“This helps us get files other than e-mail into archives, and delivers the storage management ROI, especially once [organizations] have more than 2TB under management.”
iLumins move into the file management market is a good move if the company wants to distinguish itself from its competitors—especially Zantaz Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., whose EAS (Enterprise Archive Solution) product competes head-on with iLumins Assentor e-mail archiving solution, said Brian Babineau, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group of Milford, Mass.
“They both compete in the message management space, and now well see who does files and file systems best,” he said.
The product also could help iLumin make further inroads with its existing customers, Babineau said.
“Customers might feel more comfortable having a company archive its files that already provides something else within the organization, like e-mail archiving,” he said.
Extending the companys reach into file management was a natural next step for iLumin, Gundling said, on its path toward proving that ILM can really work from a central console.
“This product is the way we become the capture agent for files and where we can establish policies for files, but we arent going to stop there,” he said.
“We need to do that for databases and other systems. At the end of the day, we want to be enterprise view of ILM in the company. We want to be where policy is created and owned, and where the storage management for files and e-mail occurs.”