Thursday, August 02, 2007

Symantec outlines its storage-as-a-service goals

Network World

Storage in the Enterprise




Network World's Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter, 08/02/07

Symantec outlines its storage-as-a-service goals

By Deni Connor

Symantec, like other vendors such as EMC, has recently started talking about delivering storage-as-a-service.

Last week we talked to Kris Hagerman, Symantec's group president of data center management about the company's view of storage-as-a-service. Here’s what he said:

“The way that we see IT evolving is that increasingly storage and many of the key capabilities of IT are going to be delivered as a service, whether you call it IT service management or real-time infrastructure or utility computing or the adaptive enterprise,” says Hagermann.

Manage Skyrocketing Storage

The data on your network is growing at a rapid pace that's only going to increase. Download Network World's latest Executive Guide and get the practical, real-world advice and insider information you need to best manage and meet your storage demands and industry regulations.

Click here to download.

“Despite what you call it, the fundamental concepts are very similar,” says Hagermann. “You take these different capabilities that are delivered whether that's storage or server management or security and they are viewed as things that have to be always on, always performing; they have to always be able to be tracked and measured so that they can meet different service levels by different application owners.

“One of the things we've seen over time and it’s not unique to storage, is that there is a gap between the business owners and the infrastructure team,” says Hagermann.

“The business application owners will say here is how much storage I need right away and I need the very highest performing storage you have. There's often no accountability or repercussions for asking for that storage. It turns out when you start delivering things like a service and track them and in some cases charge for them, lo and behold, behavior changes. Instead of just asking for the very highest performing storage for everything you're doing, you will now make decisions on the type of storage you want.”

Symantec’s storage-as-a-service initiative has four pillars:

- Understanding your current environment.
- Drive up utilization.
- Improve your operations.
- Deliver storage-as-a-service.

The crux of storage-as-a-service for Symantec is its recently introduced Storage United initiative. Storage United provides a software-oriented approach to unite diverse storage platforms, isolated islands of storage administration and storage operations with the business objectives of a company and allow customers to deliver storage-as-a-service.


  What do you think?
Post a comment on this newsletter

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES:

1. IBM saves $250M with Linux-run mainframes
2. Nortel lands huge $300M VoIP win
3. Cisco muffles Linksys death knell
4. NAC alternatives hit the mark
5. Grid pays handsome dividends for HR firm
6. AT&T, IBM among winners of $50B federal deal
7. Online gamers' dirty little secrets exposed
8. IBM supercomputer more powerful than before
9. Hogwarts IT director quits
10. Apple iPhone battery complaints mounting

MOST-READ REVIEW:
NAC alternatives hit the mark


Contact the author:

Deni Connor is senior editor for Network World magazine covering storage, archiving and compliance, IT in healthcare, Novell and data center-related issues. E-mail Deni.

 



ARCHIVE

Archive of the Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter.


BONUS FEATURE

IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details.


PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE
You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today.

International subscribers, click here.


SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here.

This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription.


Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza

Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772

Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007

No comments: