NetApp continues its datacenter collaboration efforts

Yesterday NetApp released version 6 of their SANscreen storage management solution which is focused on optimizing storage in virtualized infrastructures. Their key differentiator is the inclusion of the ability to utilize metrics on the efficiency of the storage and analyze the behavior of the SAN to allow the storage administrator a detailed view of the operations that are being performed and how well the provisioning and de-duplication functions are being performed in the virtualized infrastructure.

NetApp also announce the tight integration of SANscreen with BMC Atrium Cloud Service Management allowing BMC users to get a better view of their cloud storage environment, rapidly provision services and address storage problems.

Integration with other vendor's management systems is clearly the direction that NetApp is taking to ensure that their ubiquitous storage systems remain a major source of SAN hardware for the foreseeable future. A week ago, NetApp and Microsoft jointly announced the integration of NetApp with the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager via a management pack for the MSCVMM management console. Similar to what BMC is doing this approach also allows administrators a detailed view of the operations of their NetApp storage hardware in the virtualized environment managed by SCVMM.

Continued integration with major players in the management and virtualization marketplace is a practical strategy for a hardware-focused storage vendor especially one looking to take advantage of the virtualization, consolidation, and cloud marketplace that is currently developing.