HP 'Adapts' Its Storage Portfolio

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Hewlett-Packard has sharpened its focus on storage systems that are part of its adaptive, on-demand strategy with the release
of an expanded StorageWorks portfolio that includes new business continuity
features.

The upgraded storage systems, software and related systems in the
portfolio are part of HP’s extended ENSA (Enterprise Network Storage
Architecture) strategy of giving customers tools that help them provision
and make decisions on-the-fly.

Some of the new features in the OpenView Storage Data Protector module
include single backup and restore for all Microsoft Exchange Mailbox users
or individual mailboxes; full integration with Microsoft’s Volume Shadow
Copy Service which is used to streamline backup of open files, databases and
applications. It also incorporates support for Microsoft Automated System
Recovery and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 backup features.

Other new features in the module upgrade are new “group by devices” and
“group by hosts” views in the storage area network (SAN) auto-configuration
wizard for optimized shared device access, HP said. In addition, the storage
data software has been extended to emerging (Intel Architecture) IA-64
platforms, including Windows Server 2003, HP-UX and Linux, as
well as DB2 online backup for IBM AIX and HP-UX.

The new addition to its adaptive enterprise strategy was part of a spate
of storage-related news the company rolled out Tuesday, including a new
security software tool that makes storage area networks (SANs) safer with
the help of Brocade’s fabric infrastructure.

HP StorageWorks Secure Fabric OS is a security software tool that helps
users tailor SAN fabric security to meet specific business requirements.
Most SANs are secure at the most basic level, but as IT administrators
increasingly perform more complicated tasks with SANs, new levels of
security are required, said Roger Archibald, vice president, HP
Infrastructure and NAS Division. HP, who is extending its partnership with
Brocade in this deal, competes with EMC , IBM
and Hitachi Data Systems as a large
provider of SAN software, which is used to manage data in networks.

“There is a new focus on security in the SAN,” Archibald told
internetnews.com. “There is much more business critical data out
there and while people have traditionally had car key access to the data
center, the SAN is extending to things like remote replication, which
requires different security.”

Enterprise Storage Group Senior Analyst Nancy Marrone agreed that security
issues are becoming a more commonplace in SANs.

“I believe the need to look at security is stronger now because SANs are
becoming more commonplace, and are moving out of the “closed door” data
center environment,” Marrone told internetnews.com. “By their very
nature, SANs can create a security issue as there are now a number of entry
points to a data share, so administrator must be cautious about what user
has access to what data. Management applications allow administrators to
change the configuration of a SAN, so there needs to be a great deal of
security within the management application itself to make sure that only
authorized administrators can make any changes to the network
configuration.”

Archibald said database managers are asking HP for varying levels of
operations with the SAN — operations that go beyond the “glass house” of
the entry level storage networks. The secure OS fabric, based on Brocade
architecture, is based on public key infrastructure (PKI) and
allows better authentication control and digital certification to protect
data from corruption.

StorageWorks Secure Fabric OS works with the Palo Alto, Calif. company’s
OpenView Storage Area Manager and StorageWorks Fabric Manager to provide
centralized management of SAN security policies for management and device
access. This leads to configuration integrity and reduced risk of downtime
due to intrusion or human error. The HP Secure Fabric OS supports the entire
B-Series HP StorageWorks SAN Switch family, which is built by Brocade as the
SilkWorm fabric switch product family.

Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of marketing, said a Brocade SAN fabric
with StorageWorks Secure Fabric OS assures that only authorized users can
take management actions on the fabric and that only authorized servers,
storage, or switches can be added to the fabric.

HP StorageWorks Secure Fabric OS is now delivered through HP’s Installation
and Startup Service, which provides enterprises with storage security
planning and design assistance. The service also configures networked
storage environments using the HP StorageWorks Secure Fabric OS software.