Brocade extends healthy storage

Brocade has expanded its range of storage maintenance services and products to help system administrators optimise SANs.

Announced in the UK on Thursday, the additions to Brocade's SAN (storage area network) Health Family include the SAN Health Professional framework and analytical modules, and the interactive SAN Health Expert consultation service — a paid-for service.

The SAN Health Family is designed to give SAN managers and other IT professionals comprehensive data analysis and reporting tools to help optimise their networks.

One of the key existing components of the SAN Health Family is the SAN Health diagnostic tool for analysing the general health of SANs. The free utility captures raw switch diagnostic data, checks it for problems, analyses it and then produces a Visio-based topology diagram as well as an Excel-based report. The product has already been used by around 10,000 companies and organisations, Brocade claims.

SAN Health Professional is a free framework that extends data analysis capabilities and provides a more holistic view of the entire SAN, from the switches out to the attached devices, the company claims. The aim is to simplify SAN maintenance and inventory operations, which can often waste a lot of systems administrators' time.

SAN Health Expert is a subscription-based service that provides SAN analysis and quarterly consultations with Brocade SAN professionals.

Also available is Health Professional Change Analysis, which is also a paid-for service that lets users compare two SAN Health reports run at different times, with all the detailed changes highlighted in an easy-to-understand format.