SRM Product Analysis and User Recommendations

Transcription

1 Hurwitz Group Report: SRM Product Analysis and User Recommendations July 2002 Storage Management and Services Hurwitz Group Report The Storage Resource Management (SRM) Market SRM Product Analysis and User Recommendations Critical SRM User Issues The storage resource management market will grow 30% this year and is one of the fastest growing storage management markets. Market drivers include the need for storage and system administrators to understand storage capacity and utilization, reporting, architecture performance and availability, and automated policy management in a heterogeneous storage environment. There are over 22 storage resource management vendors in the marketplace today. Vendor products excel in various areas such as policy management, automation, quota management, and configuration management. Users should recognize what functional area(s) are most important for their business requirements. Other critical factors for successful SRM usage are having a crisp deployment plan and making sure staff have been correctly allocated. Users should take into account the following key issues prior to the purchase of SRM tools: Goal oriented. Whatever your SRM goal, purchase the product that best fits your SRM requirements (see list of 10 below) and keep implementation times, integration roadmaps, and future technology strategy in mind. Planning, resource allocation (staffing and money), and execution are critical for SRM success. Ease-of-use. Some SRM products have elegant interfaces while others miss the mark. Run through a DEMO and check up on the vendor by asking questions. About areas such as data generation and reporting, data level of granularity, canned versus customer reporting, ease of use, and future product roadmaps. Service and Support. Users should check customer references and inquire about service and support from all vendors. Before you purchase, fully understand what level of support you may need and the 2002 Hurwitz Group, Inc. Reproduction without permission is strictly forbidden 1

2 flexibility of the program you will purchase. Mainframe and distributed platform support should also be addressed. Platform coverage. Heterogeneous storage hardware platform support is part of the value of SRM tools. Ask vendors about their platform support roadmap and integration plans.. SRM tools offer varying degrees of policy-based management that trigger automation. Users must understand that certain policy deployments will have an effect on server and applications groups. While policies can add value, they should be well thought out and deployed with caution. Implementation. Users must have a clear sense for SRM tool implementation timelines. A critical barrier to ROI, these timelines will vary substantially depending on the tool. Users should allocate the staff and time needed to extract the value from SRM tools. This report analyzes the top SRM vendor products from a functional perspective. It also provides users with actionable advice as to when they should consider purchasing specific SRM products. SRM Definition and Critical Functions There are over 20 vendors that are shipping products in the storage resource management market. Hurwitz Group defines the SRM market as: Storage resource management: Software that manages storage resources from a capacity, utilization, policy, and event management perspective. This includes bill-back, monitoring, reporting, and analytic capabilities that allow drill down for performance and availability. For the analysis, Hurwitz Group has defined the 10 critical functional areas for a complete storage resource management solution. There is no single vendor that has all of the offerings today. However, future product roadmaps and integration paths for most vendors will increasingly offer the 10 functional areas through a single interface. These 10 areas are: 1.. The ability to manage, track, and maintain storage hardware information. 2.. Enables customer billing and visibility into departmental storage costs. 3.. Collects physical (hardware) and logical (volume space). 4.. Configures physical storage systems. 5.. Allows data movement from various media types. 6.. Problem notification for storage administrators. 7.. Understands application, server, and subsystem performance and availability. 8.. Dictates storage policy and enacts actions on hardware, files, users, etc. 9.. Manages disk usage and wasted space.

3 10.. Collects information on/off site tape, optical hardware, and other storage. Vendor Product Analysis and User Recommendations Hurwitz Group analyzed 10 vendor products for functional strengths, challenges, and best fit for users contemplating SRM product selection. It should be noted that some vendors offer functionality through one product, while others offer it through several products. The following analysis is based on vendor meetings, user discussions, and customer reference checks. The chart below shows the various functional levels of support that the selected 10 vendors and their product(s) provide (see Table 1 and 2). Table 1. Functional Coverage Functional Coverage Product(s) Asset Management Chargeback Device/Media Migration Alerting Performance Management Policy Management Quota Management Removeable Media Management Configuration Management Capacity Management Availability Management Vendor Astrum StorCast Software BMC Software Compaq (HP) Computer Associates, International EMC IBM IBM TotalStorage Expert, and Tivoli Storage Network Manager PATROL Storage Management, MainView SRM, and Patrol Knowledge Modules for Storage Devices SANworks (Management Appliance, Network View, SRM, Storage Resource Manager, Storage Allocation Reporter) BrightStor Storage Resource Manager, BrightStor CA- ASTE Performance, BrightStor CA-Vantage Storage Resource Manager EMC ControlCenter StorageScope, EMC ControlCenter Resource Availability, EMC ControlCenter DB Tuner, EMC Symmetrix Optimizer, Workload Analyzer, Navisphere Analyzer, EMC ControlCenter Replication Manager, Symmetrix Data Mobility Legato GEMS SRM Precise- WQuinn StorageCentral SRM, SiteStor SRM, QuotaAdvisor Sun StorEdge Resource Manager Suite VERITAS SANPoint Control

4 Table 2. Platform Coverage Functional Coverage Product(s) AI HP-U Linux Novell NetWare Solaris Tru64 Windows NT/2000 OS 390 OpenVMS Vendor Astrum Software StorCast BMC Software PATROL Storage Management Compaq (HP) SANworks Storage Resource Manager Computer Associates, International BrightStor Storage Resource Manager EMC EMC ControlCenter StorageScope IBM IBM TotalStorage Expert Legato GEMS SRM Precise- StorageCentral SRM WQuinn Sun StorEdge Resource Manager Suite VERITAS SANPoint Control Astrum Software Product: StorCast Functional Strengths ( means yes)

5 A small start-up firm, Astrum recently shored up its executive management ranks, which will help the company extend its product line and functionality. Its employee to customer count is good for a start-up although revenues are small; it most often competes with SUN, Precise-WQuinn, and Trellisoft. Astrum, as a small company, must continue to market itself and build awareness through differentiation and best of class technology. To continue to establish brand, customer reference accounts must continue to be established. Future product upgrades will help stimulate prospect excitement and recent executive hires will push product and sales expansion forward. Execution is the name of the game for Astrum; beefing up marketing, platform support, and technology partnerships must also be addressed. Users should consider StorCast when requiring automated policies that enable actions for storage management keeping in mind that the company is a start-up and areas such as product and technical support will experience growing pains. Slick (and patent pending) storage scanning technology, 50+ reports, and in-depth data collection offer users a tight, quick deployment for quota management and reporting. BMC Software Products: PATROL Storage Management (PSM), MainView SRM, and Patrol Knowledge Modules (KMs) for Storage Devices Functional Strengths ( means yes) For existing PATROL customers that want to begin to instrument their storage infrastructure elements, they should install PATROL storage KMs. For customers that have already done this and want to manage storage more strategically, they should install PATROL Storage Management (PSM). For non-patrol customers looking for an SRM solution, there is no need to purchase PATROL as the PATROL Storage Management solution has the key PATROL elements bundled with it. Configuration and policy management is enabled today in PATROL KMs via customer scripting based on alerting and thresholds identified by the KM. Future enhancements are planned in these areas.

6 BMC s internal challenge is to maintain its focus on storage software and build customer awareness of its storage management technology. With its massive Patrol install base, initial sales will come from Patrol users who need storage management help and want to leverage their Patrol deployment. Early customer adoptions provide BMC with valuable feedback on product roadmap, functional requirements, and marketing. Patrol users we have spoken with are very interested in the storage KMs, but hesitant on what it will cost. PATROL users should investigate PATROL Storage Management and ask for customer reference checks. BMC offers full PATROL integration with PATROL Storage Management 2.1 and has worked hard at simplifying the installation and configuration processes for PSM. Ease of use, continued simplification of the product installation and configuration processes, more application support, and support for high availability environments will arrive in PSM 2.2 in six months. BMC Patrol users should ask for customer references and negotiate price points. Installation and deployment of PSM is improving, but not yet plug and play. Compaq (now HP) Product: SANworks (Management Appliance, Network View, SRM, Storage Resource Manager, Storage Allocation Reporter) Functional Strengths ( means yes) With the HP and Compaq merger complete, legacy HP SRM products (Storage Builder, Storage Area Manager, which includes Storage Node Manager, Storage Optimizer, Storage Allocator, and Storage Accountant) are the clear migration paths from the (formerly) Compaq SRM solutions. However, HP plans to continue development of the Compaq Management Appliance. The first major challenge is migrating to HP s SRM software from Compaq s SRM software in a reasonable timeframe. The second challenge is communicating to customers the SRM strategy to which HP is committingappliance based, software based, or both. The acquired products from Compaq did not add much in terms of software functionality. However, Compaq s 2002 management appliance product development goals should add robust functionality, which will integrate well with HP s OpenView Storage Area Manager. An overarching concern Hurwitz Group has is will the legacy Compaq high-end storage business remain strong and will its dominant mid-range position as product lines merge.

7 Depending on the direction HP product development teams take, existing Compaq SRM users will have to make a choice of either staying with their existing products or moving to HP Storage Area Manager. Hurwitz Group recommends holding true with your chosen products from HP or Compaq in the short term (1-2 quarters) until HP product teams distill future product strategy and timelines. Users should then, with functional requirements in hand, determine if the new HP products fit your requirements. Computer Associates, International (CA) Products: BrightStor Storage Resource Manager, BrightStor CA-ASTE Performance, and BrightStor CA-Vantage Storage Resource Manager Functional Strengths ( means yes) Computer Associates, International has storage management software solutions for both mainframe and distributed environments. Upheld by its underlying CA common services, BrightStor is CA s brand of storage management applications, offering enterprise storage automation, data availability, storage resource management, media management, and network storage management. CA s major challenges are the heavy application instrumentation that s required and the incomprehensive hardware platform support. Hardware platform support currently available includes Network Appliance filers, EMC Symmetrix, IBM ESS and VTS, StorageTek SVA and VSM, HDS 7700, as well as others. Application integration issues require dedicated resources and strict project management to reap the robust set of SRM benefits that the applications offer (as most enterprise-scale SRM solutions require). The BrightStor SRM solution is one of the few solutions that can bring together mainframe and distributed data into a single interface, it provides solid end-to-end workflow visibility. Users that have Unicenter installed should place CA s SRM solutions on the short list as its feature sets and product roadmap compliment Unicenter components. Similarly, current users of any of the various solutions under the BrightStor umbrella can benefit from the tight integration with the BrightStor SRM solution. CA s SRM applications offer very solid functionality and future releases will increase integration and improve reporting. Prior to purchase, users should have a clear goal of what they want to accomplish, which will dictate application

8 selection. Patience is critical as CA increases its investment in the storage management market and expands its SRM market presence into the open/distributed systems market. This is a sophisticated solution targeted mostly at medium and large organizations. EMC Products: EMC ControlCenter StorageScope, EMC ControlCenter Resource Availability, EMC ControlCenter DB Tuner, EMC Symmetrix Optimizer, Workload Analyzer, Navisphere Analyzer, EMC ControlCenter Replication Manager, Symmetrix Data Mobility Functional Strengths ( means yes) EMC is the current market share leader in the storage resource management market due to robust 2001 sales into its huge hardware install base. EMC s SRM solution is comprised of a group of applications with StorageScope, Resource Availability, and DB Tuner making up the majority of SRM sales. EMC s primary challenge is gathering more detailed and deeper non-emc hardware information. EMC has been making strides in opening its software for API development from other vendors with its WideSky middleware layer, but whether this strategy will lead to better heterogeneous management remains to be seen as many critical hardware vendors have chosen not to participate. EMC s StorageScope supports Compaq and Network Appliance today while Resource Availability and DBTuner offer much more storage support. EMC s strength is being able to provide mapping from host to array for its SRM products. The ability to map file systems and databases on hosts to physical devices provides a complete view of the relationship from host to storage so users can increase performance, manage service levels, and achieve higher asset utilization. Most EMC shops we have spoken with concerning SRM have purchased at least one, and usually several applications. We expect some SRM applications to merge with others over the next 18 months with increased hardware support driven by WideSky, potential software acquisitions, and the continued re-invention of EMC from hardware to a software firm. Users should closely analyze the complexity of their storage architecture, and if

9 it s EMC dominated, place EMC s SRM applications on the short list. Users should also inquire about the use of standards, automation capabilities, and integration plans for EMC s SRM applications. IBM Products: IBM TotalStorage Expert, and Tivoli Storage Network Manager Functional Strengths ( means yes) IBM has made significant investment in storage management and within the past two months has announced its storage management strategy roadmap. SRM is one of the areas it has singled out for increased investment. IBM has rebranded the StorWatch family as IBM TotalStorage. IBM is betting on the development of standards in the near term to propel easier heterogeneous storage management. The main challenge for IBM is assuring customers that Tivoli, IBM hardware, and IBM storage management development teams drive the same message and provide deep integration between products. Storage strategy execution and partner API development for SRM functional gaps are critical concerns moving forward. The lack of support for non-ibm storage devices also limits SRM information extraction and analysis. Users looking for an integrated SRM storage solution for mainframe and distributed environments that already have IBM storage should place IBM s SRM applications on the short list. IBM s long-term storage management strategy surrounds standards, thus its timeline is connected to standards hardening. Existing Tivoli users would also be smart to investigate IBM s SRM applications as discussions with IBM s storage teams indicate that IBM hardware, software, and Tivoli development teams are working closer together. In fact, closer than we have ever seen before. IBM s storage software group plans to offer tighter integration, increased platform coverage, and improved data reporting and analysis. Users who can wait out standards and IBM business and development cycles will gain the most value.

10 Legato Product: GEMS SRM Functional Strengths ( means yes) The OTG acquisition will enhance the functionality of GEMS SRM and facilitate a well-deserved name change. Device and media migration and a policy roadmap are expected soon via OTG technology. Product naming conventions and functional integration with OTG and existing Legato products are two key challenges. Expanding the depth of monitoring, management, and reporting are other concerns. GEMS SRM base technology is from the former Highground and now Sun SRM product. Legato needs to quickly identify the product roadmap and execute development to keep existing users interested. Existing GEMS SRM users should inquire about the product roadmap and get timelines for functional improvements. Users should match realistic Legato product improvement timelines to their IT organization s SRM project deployment schedule. If the schedules and level of functionality do not match, either hold off on the purchase or look for alternatives. Precise-WQuinn Products: StorageCentral SRM, SiteStor SRM, QuotaAdvisor Functional Strengths ( means yes)

11 WQuinn has benefited tremendously from being a part of Precise with increased sales and channel distribution. Solid platform coverage will continue to increase sales opportunities. Microsoft has extended its NAS relationship with the company and is placing the software into its Windows 2000 Server OS. As the product increases its functionality, price points also increase. Users should inquire, prior to purchase, about price increases and plan accordingly. The company offers significant discounts on high volume deals (up to 50%) and users interested in simple functionality can purchase QuotaAdvisor with FileScreen for about $600. An early concern about filter driver installs crashing servers seems to have been solved as larger deals with companies such as Bank of America and Nordstrom occur and user feedback is incorporated into the product. Users with Windows based NAS boxes most likely already have the Precise-WQuinn software (per the Microsoft partnership), which makes accessing and installing the software easy. With broad platform support, Precise- WQuinn has a solid product for policy based server disk monitoring, quota management, and reporting. Users should inquire about price points and new version releases prior to purchase and plan accordingly. For tactical storage disk management, this product should be considered.. SUN Products: StorEdge Resource Manager Suite Functional Strengths ( means yes) Sun, throughout the past two years, has substantially increased its activity in the storage markets and will have important SRM software product announcements this quarter. One of the critical perceived challenges for SUN s SRM solution is that some users are wary of SUN s NT/Windows drill down capabilities due to the anti-microsoft sentiment the company is known for. SUN does support some things on Solaris that they don t on other UNI (clusters and volume managers) but for the most part, support is close to equal. We have spoken with users who have not chosen the product because they

12 question SUN s long term support of Microsoft technologies. A second challenge is the required integration between SRM applications for extended functionality to address areas such as SAN network discovery and mapping. The product has one of the best reporting interfaces and it s also easy to use. The product excels at offering filelevel information, predictive alerting, robust storage reporting, and policy-based quota management, and supports Network Appliance, arrays, SAN switches, and Oracle and Sybase databases. Users should inquire about non-sun platform support knowing that the product has and will continue to address this area. Veritas Products: SANPoint Control Functional Strengths ( means yes) VERITAS has a tradition of storage management innovation and has the largest customer install base of any pure storage software management vendor. The company s recently announced strategy roadmap focused on tighter integration between products and end-to-end application-specific storage management. The main challenge for SANPoint Control is increasing the number of out-of-the-box reports, which currently numbers 78 and range from performance, error, and capacity to application and inventory reports. Users can, however, access the Sybase database and write custom reports. Additionally, the 78 reports can be exported directly in comma separated value format and customized further. File type scanning is currently not available; however, it's in the product development roadmap but file system capacity monitoring to the host is. Users that require heterogeneous SAN discovery and management, logical and physical mapping, reporting, and policy management, and who want to manage and automatically provision file systems per application should place this product on their short list. Existing VERITAS customers should seriously consider SANPoint Control because of its integration with VERITAS Cluster Server, VERITAS NetBackup, and VERITAS Volume Manager as well as Oracle and Microsoft Exchange. Users should inquire about application coverage and platform support and map this to their SRM goals. Linux, HP-U, and AI support are planned before year-end and the product

13 discovers all hosts, no matter what OS they are running. Users Hurwitz Group has spoken with give Veritas high marks on customer support and service ensuring solid levels of enterprise support. Past product roadmap and execution suggests that customer feedback is taken seriously and placed into the development cycle. Conclusion Users that have storage resource management on their tactical project lists should have clear goals and functional requirements developed prior to product selection. Deploying short-term SRM objectives such as SAN management, quota management, performance and availability management, etc. should compliment long-term SRM objectives that will utilize automation and virtualization helping to maximize an SRM investment. Users should be aware of the integration work that some SRM applications require and purchase products that meet their short-term tactical goals while providing a long-term SRM strategy based on business requirements. The primary reason that businesses deploy information technology is to enable more efficient and effective business processes. IT can be a major vehicle for enabling new business models or processes, for improving an existing individual business, and for integrating related business processes. Some business processes are: Supply chain management (SCM) Customer relationship management (CRM) Employee relationship management (ERM) Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Accounts payable Data growth continues to accelerate and pressure IT organizations to build scalable and highly available storage architectures. Mission-critical applications, driven by business requirements, solidify the need of storage administrators to understand the impact storage management technologies can have on storage ROI. To reach this point, users must know the business requirements that drive storage management application functionality and feature sets, which dictate tool purchases.