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With the fast ramp up of demand for data center automation in the past 18 months, independent automation vendors such as Opsware have had to partner quickly with complementary niche offerings to satisfy the broader needs of customers.
On July 16, Solidcore Systems will become the latest to team up with Opsware to partner to deliver integrated change control functionality.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based Solidcore Systems will integrate its S3 Change Control system with Opswares System 6 suite, which automates provisioning and change management for servers and networks, and will do the same soon for storage.
As a part of the agreement, Opsware will have the ability to resell Solidcores S3 Change Control software to its customers. Opsware in those instances will provide first-level support for the S3 software. S3 is the only change control software Opsware will resell, according to Rosen Sharma, CEO of Solidcore.
Although Solidcore competitor Tripwire had a previous two-year relationship with Opsware, Solidcore provided other advantages, Sharma said.
Chief among those is real-time enforcement of policies. “You can specify configuration files that cant be changed, and through integration with Opswares automation systems, you will have the capability to enforce change policy,” said Sharma.
Although Opsware will “happily support the integration of Tripwire” for existing customers, Solidcores S3 system is a “more appropriate fit with Opsware,” said Sharmila Shahani, executive vice president of marketing at Opsware, in Sunnyvale, Calif.
There is also some degree of overlap in what Tripwire offers with Opswares compliance management offerings, which could cause “confusion” for customers, she added.
In addition to S3 recognizing the Opsware provisioning software and allowing appropriate changes to be made through it, the two vendors provided a single console view into their respective databases. Solidcores database records change data such as who made what changes where and when. Opsware provides a configuration management database. The two vendors may also provide further integration between S3 and Opswares recently acquired iConclude process automation capability.
Late this summer Opsware will further extend its automated provisioning and change management capabilities into the storage realm with its planned Application Storage Automation System. It will be aimed at application administrators, rather than storage administrators. It emphasizes setting up storage from an application and server perspective.
“What the application administrator needs to know is how much storage is allocated to me, what applications are using it and is there more I can tap into for my applications,” said Shahani.
With data center automation on the hockey stick side of growth, Opsware has seen demand for integration with different niche applications also increase. Along with Solidcore, application configuration management provider mValent on July 10 joined Opswares Technology Alliance Program, bringing the number of participants up to 22 and growing, Shahani said.