BMC Software Suite Frees IT Managers

The storage management arena got a little more crowded this month as BMC Software Inc. announced a software suite that gives IT managers a broader view of how their hardware is affecting applications.

BMC, of Houston, will make available its ACSM (Application-Centric Storage Management) suite, which comprises four separate software pieces linked together to provide IT managers with a quick view of exactly which faulty hardware component is affecting the database and the applications that sit on the database.

The ACSM suite, based on BMCs Patrol architecture, includes the Application Storage Resource Manager, which correlates applications to the file systems and volumes viewed through Storage Resource Manager software, a second component.

Another software component, the Storage Network Manager, works as a topology tool for viewing logical unit numbers, storage devices, switches and routers.

Finally, the Storage Device Knowledge Module piece details the performance, capacity and availability of products from companies such as EMC Corp., McData Corp., Network Appliance Inc., CrossRoads Systems Inc. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

BMC customer Mike Popp, a network service specialist with Cymer Inc., beta tested the ACSM Knowledge Module for his Network Appliance filers. According to Popp, the software frees him from having to rely on Network Appliances management tools for its network-attached storage devices.

“What I really like about it is the single pane of glass we can use to view all the NetApp filers we have,” Popp said. “It really helps to have a look at your enterprise storage environment with a single view.”

Each of the software pieces has individual functions, but the four work together so the customer can track storage use and growth by application rather than by just the disk or file system.

“For a long time, the mode of operation was storage is growing and it is getting cheaper; lets just add more. Thats not the case anymore. The first step of auditing storage resources is managing the amount that your business is using,” said Chris Gahagan, BMCs vice president and general manager of storage management.

“What we provide here is a mechanism to correlate all the underlying storage devices. So when an IT manager sees a device slow down, they can relate it back to the application that is being affected and take corrective action.”