EMC rolls out new storage software

Storage giant EMC announced on Monday new software products, along with enhancements to existing applications that are aimed at midtier storage systems.

The new applications, VisualSRM and VisualSAN, are intended to help information technology managers at midsize businesses administer general storage resources and, in particular, SANs (storage area networks).

Jeffrey Bernard, director of Clariion software product marketing at EMC, suggested divisions or remote operations of larger companies also may benefit from the new software and the upgrades to applications for EMC's Clariion storage systems. "Some of the very large enterprises have midtier requirements," he said.

EMC is best known for running large storage systems for enterprise customers, but the company has tried to attract midrange clients in recent years by beefing up its SAN offerings and enhancing its Clariion line, which is resold through Dell.

The new VisualSRM software includes tools for tracking storage consumption, setting policies for tasks such as moving and deleting files, and selecting the optimum storage media for a given situation.

VisualSAN includes tools for monitoring SAN devices and keeping track of SAN configurations.

Along with announcing the VisualSRM and VisualSAN products, EMC is adding new features to software for Clariion systems. Navisphere, a management application, will now allow IT managers to expand storage capacity "on the fly," without costly downtime. A new SnapView tool will simplify and automate backups of Microsoft Exchange databases without requiring an application freeze or shutdown. And SAN Copy will now allow free interchange of data between EMC and Hewlett-Packard systems.