MonoSphere Introduces Storage Horizon 3.4
MonoSphere has introduced Storage Horizon 3.4, a solution delivering
storage capacity management capabilities to Network Appliance (NetApp)
storage environments. Suited for managing large storage environments,
this enterprise-class software solution provides Global 3000 companies
with a unified view of current and projected storage capacity usage,
giving companies the insight to develop effective storage capacity
plans and maximize utilization of existing and future storage assets.
Storage
Horizon has been enhanced to support NetApp Qtree, FlexVol, FlexClone,
and Snapshot technologies, providing a complete solution to optimally
manage the capacity of NetApp filers. It is particularly suited to
managing the capacity of large environments consisting of many filers.
For
Qtrees, NetApp's commonly used storage quota system, the Storage
Horizon software provides the necessary analysis to help users quickly
understand important issues such as when Qtree usage is over allocated,
if the sum of all Qtree allocations is greater than the size of the
volume, which Qtrees are forecasted to exceed critical utilization
thresholds, and which Qtrees are over-provisioned.
In addition
to support for Qtrees, MonoSphere also delivers new support for
FlexVols, which provide the basis for NetApp's storage virtualization
technology enabling capabilities such as thin provisioning. In
MonoSphere's July 2007 survey of 249 senior storage professionals at
mid- to large-sized companies, users indicated that the three biggest
drawbacks of implementing thin provisioning technology are the
increased risk of running out of storage, increased complexity, and the
lack of thin provisioning management tools. A total of 77 percent of
those surveyed said that a storage capacity management solution that
decreased the complexity and risk of managing a thin provisioned
environment would increase their use of thin provisioning. The Storage
Horizon software solves these challenges for NetApp environments by
providing the necessary analysis to quickly understand important issues
such as which aggregates are running out of available space for
non-space guaranteed storage, which are forecasted to exceed critical
utilization thresholds, the size, usage and growth of both space and
non-space guaranteed FlexVols; and the degree to which an aggregate is
over-provisioned.
The Storage Horizon software also has been
enhanced to support NetApp's Snapshot technology, which provides
point-in-time copies of file systems. The Storage Horizon software
provides the necessary analysis which allows users to quickly
understand important issues such as if snapshot reserve is effectively
sized, when the snapshot usage is greater than snapshot reserve, or
when snapshot reserves are projected to run out.
Before the
Storage Horizon software, capacity planning for networked storage was
too complex, error-prone and manually intensive. As a result, most
companies rarely implement an effective planning process, causing
overall storage utilization to be at unacceptable levels. Now, the
Storage Horizon software enables storage administrators to proactively
plan capacity in a timely, cost effective manner, thereby enabling
users to achieve much higher utilization levels, typically greater than
80 percent. The result is a dramatic improvement in storage total cost
of ownership (TCO) via decreases in storage capital expenditures – as
much as 50 percent – and a reduction in operational expenditures such
as power, cooling and floor space. In addition, the Storage Horizon
solution does not require installation of software agents on
application servers, so the system deploys in hours and immediately
begins collecting storage usage data.