Aptare StorageConsole With NetApp Support

Enterprise storage software company APTARE, Inc. announced APTARE StorageConsole 6.6, the latest version of its Web 2.0 agent-less storage management and reporting platform that now includes full support for NetApp storage environments.

In addition, StorageConsole 6.6 offers a whole new category of storage reclamation reports, which make it easy for storage administrators to identify reclaimable ‘hidden’ pockets of unused storage so they can increase the utilization of their storage and reduce future storage purchases. A new wizard — the Report Template Designer — offers more flexibility by empowering users to easily create customized reports that meet their unique business needs.

This announcement strengthens APTARE’s ability to deliver unparalleled breadth and depth in storage reporting details. It extends the company’s competitive position as the provider of the industry’s most comprehensive easy-to-use end-to-end storage management and reporting platform. From backup environments to primary storage, administrators can optimize their storage environment in one pane of glass.

"In today’s uncertain economy, real-time analysis and visibility into the health of IT storage environments are vital for effectively managing this key resource and conserving cash," said Richard Clark, president and CEO of APTARE. "With StorageConsole 6.6, we hit squarely on issues that impact productivity and cost containment. The new release gives customers the ideal platform for managing, optimizing and reporting on NetApp environments, more options for creating reports and dashboards, and ROI assessment reporting that delivers unprecedented insight into the utilization of their storage investments."

APTARE StorageConsole is a cost-effective agent-less platform leveraging all of the interactive, customizable benefits of Web 2.0 architecture. It integrates backup and storage capacity reporting into a single Web 2.0 console optimized to allow enterprises to improve their storage utilization and reduce costs.

"APTARE has a solid reputation for being responsive to the needs of storage administrators in large enterprises, and this announcement is another proof point," said Bob Laliberte, analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. "Just about any large heterogeneous storage environment is likely to include products from NetApp. By supporting this major storage vendor’s offerings, APTARE increases its value to enterprise customers with mixed environments, giving them a single pane of glass to monitor the entire storage infrastructure, thereby reducing complexity and accelerating optimization strategies."

StorageConsole 6.6 features a Web 2.0 platform plus two products — Capacity Manager, which provides an end-to-end view of primary storage, and Backup Manager, which gives a real-time view into the backup environment.

Advancements in the new version include:

• Full NetApp Support within Capacity Manager: APTARE now supports all NetApp Storage Systems running Data ONTAP versions 7.1 and higher, including NAS, and Fibre Channel and iSCSI LUNs, as well as OEM versions of the NetApp product such as theI BM N-Series. Detailed reporting is delivered using NetApp’s native terminology, which makes it very easy for administrators to become immediately proficient. Reporting can be done on SnapShots, Arrays, Aggregates, Volumes, CIFs, NFS Shares, Qtrees, Plexes, RAID Groups and Quotas.
• Storage Reclamation Reporting: Given the enormous investments organizations make in storage, visibility into just how much is really being used — versus just allocated — can make a significant difference in cost outlays. This category of new reports allows organizations to identify hidden pockets of storage that can be reclaimed and reallocated. It can also bring clarity to the status of unreclaimable storage to improve future storage allocation.
• Report Template Designer: Users are now able to easily create their own customizable reports by using APTARE’s report template wizard. While APTARE is well recognized for including the most ‘out of the box’ reports, the company has also heard from users who want options for customizing. This wizard allows users to create reports using the underlying database views to create literally any report they want.
• Platform Technology Enhancements: The APTARE StorageConsole portal software now supports 64-bit Oracle. This enables even greater scaling for large enterprises with multiple data centers. Additionally, a new section has been added to the Report Navigator called ‘My Reports.’ This allows users to easily organize all of their reports by creating their own folders where they can drag and drop report templates and reports into their own folders.

In addition to NetApp support, APTARE’s vendor-neutral storage management and reporting platform works with storage solutions across a wide range of storage hardware and backup software. It supports storage arrays from EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, HP and Sun. It supports all of the most popular backup solutions, including EMC Legato NetWorker, VERITAS NetBackup, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, HP Data Protector, Symantec Backup Exec, Sun StorageTek ACSLS Manager and Oracle Recovery Manager.

Availability and Pricing
APTARE StorageConsole 6.6 is available now directly through APTARE and its worldwide alliance of resellers and managed storage services providers, including Datalink, Orchesys and FusionStorm.
APTARE StorageConsole Capacity Manager is priced on total RAW terabytes in a customer’s SAN and NAS environment. Entry-level pricing starts at $35,000 for 100 terabytes.
APTARE StorageConsole Backup Manager is priced on a per backup unit basis. Entry-level pricing for smaller environments is $15,000 for 100 backup clients.