CAs BrightStor r11.1 solutions usher in next generation of intelligent storage management

Computer Associates International has announced the availability of BrightStor r11.1, a new generation of intelligent storage management solutions that enable enterprises to rigorously safeguard their corporate data assets with greater cost-efficiency than ever before.

Built around 13 tightly integrated and enhanced products, BrightStor r11.1 is designed to better align storage spending with business value a critical objective for organisations as storage volume continues to grow much faster than storage budgets. By supporting more than 100 storage arrays, tape libraries, SAN switches, servers, operating systems, databases, and applications, BrightStor r11.1 also uniquely helps to ensure the integrity and reliability of data protection across the enterprise.

To fully protect the business and achieve regulatory compliance within existing resource constraints, enterprise customers have to bring a new level of precision, automation and financial discipline to their storage management processes, said Mark Barrenechea, executive vice-president of product development at CA. CAs BrightStor r11.1 fulfills these critical requirements by streamlining storage operations and allowing those operations to be driven by sound business logic. The breadth of platform and device support that BrightStor r11.1 delivers combined with its rich functionality and intelligent storage management capabilities makes it a better business value than offerings from VERITAS and EMC.

With BrightStor r11.1 solutions, organisations can better leverage their investments in storage infrastructure and devices by managing and protecting greater volumes of data across multiple platforms including Windows, UNIX, Linux, NetWare, and mainframe z/OS in a common manner. Managers can make informed decisions about resource allocation based on the business value of data assets and specific operational requirements, enabling them to prioritise investments in high-value data. IT organisations can also reclaim unused capacity, increase the efficiency of backup and restore processes, and maximise staff productivity.

To keep our business functioning smoothly and to protect ourselves from data loss, we have to effectively store and back up a huge number of files that reside on thousands of machines running different operating systems and that are associated with a broad range of specific applications, said Mohamad Alkazaz, IT and telecommunications manager at Saint-Gobain Crystals, a subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, one of the top 100 industrial companies in the world. CAs BrightStor r11.1 enables us to successfully meet this formidable challenge allowing us to minimise business risk while optimising the total business value returned by our investments in storage infrastructure.

BrightStor r11.1 significantly enhances enterprise storage operations by providing common, automated management of resources and processes across the enterprise.

Key capabilities include:

Cross-platform storage management
BrightStor r11.1 delivers a common view including full path visualisation and critical path analysis across distributed and mainframe assets via integration with BrightStor Storage Resource Manager (BrightStor SRM), BrightStor SAN Manager and BrightStor CA-Vantage SRM. This helps ensure optimum use of enterprise resources and boosts staff productivity. Through close collaboration with major storage hardware manufacturers including EMC, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems. BrightStor r11.1 enables users to select best-of-breed hardware, while providing the integrated enterprise view of their storage environment that is necessary to optimise resource utilisation and minimise operating costs.

Cross-platform backup management
BrightStor ARCserve Backup r11.1 enables customers to manage backup/recovery operations across heterogeneous environments, improving the efficiency of those operations and helping to ensure effective protection of all critical data assets. Databases and applications supported include Advantage Ingres, DB2, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP R/3 and Sybase.

Enhanced resource management intelligence
Integration between BrightStor SRM and BrightStor ARCserve Backup enables IT managers to make smarter, business-driven decisions about data backup. Managers can better allocate staff resources and storage hardware based on the business value of the data thereby reducing costs without compromising protection.

Process automation
BrightStor Process Automation Manager, a new addition to the BrightStor line, enables IT organisations to better automate key storage-related tasks across the enterprise to ensure consistency with best practices and reduce labour-related storage costs. This enhanced automation also reduces the risks associated with manual maintenance.

Optimised availability
The integration of BrightStor High Availability with other BrightStor Data Availability solutions enables customers to leverage advanced automation and intelligence functionality to better protect Windows data and thereby support business continuity and disaster recovery.

Unicenter and eTrust integration
BrightStor r11.1 provides the additional benefits of CAs Enterprise Infrastructure Management strategy through integration with the companys Unicenter operations management solutions and eTrust security management solutions. This enables storage infrastructures to be managed as an integrated component of the overall enterprise environment, empowering IT to manage the full spectrum of resources that support specific business services and processes in a unified manner. IT organisations can also more effectively and consistently enforce security policies and best practices across the enterprise to protect data from viruses and other threats.

Pricing and availability
BrightStor r11.1 solutions are available under CAs FlexSelect licensing program. CA is also offering BrightStor Managed Capacity Pricing, a simplified licensing model based on terabyte capacity that eliminates the need to track server- or application-based licences. CA Technology Services and business partners offer complementary service offerings.