High-end databases and high-end storage needs tend to be bought at the same time, and storage leader EMC Corp. is taking advantage of that.
On Monday, the Hopkinton, Mass., company announced two new versions of its ControlCenter Database Tuner software. One version is for using EMCs high-end Symmetrix product with IBMs DB2; the other is for matching the midrange Clariion box with Oracle Corp.s 9i, officials said.
The feature highlights include SQL statement tuning, specific placement of database information in the storage hardware and features that compare disk performance with database object performance, EMC officials said.
The products pricing starts at about $13,000 on the low end and goes up, said Jennifer Kilshaw, EMC marketing manager. The tuner works by extracting data from the APIs and from the operating systems kernel, she said.
Although EMC customized the tool, its core technology comes from Precise Software Solutions Ltd. The Westwood, Mass., company has a more generic version of the database tool, which was updated as Version 3.2 two weeks ago, Precise officials said. Future features will include better reporting and alerting notifications, plus a Web interface, they said.
Within six months, Precise also hopes to strike similar deals with PeopleSoft Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc., and officials are planning a version for Microsoft Corp.s SQL Server in the first half of 2002, said CEO Shimon Alon.
As for EMCs decision not to tell customers who actually makes the technology, “I feel that its a mistake. They feel that it is not. They like to appear as a software company without sharing the source of where they get it from, [but] were not worried about it,” Alon said.
Asked about that decision, Kilshaw said, “Were interested in putting emphasis on what the product offers our customers, not who developed it.”