EMC Canada has simplified the way its customers use,
deploy and manage storage resources through an automated billing
system.
The latest billing component comes integrated in EMC’s OpenScale
storage asset and financial management program to bring automated
billing to networked storage infrastructures including storage
capacity, storage area network (San) switch ports, network attached
storage (Nas) servers and storage software.
In May, EMC announced its ControlCenter Online storage technical
solutions, which incorporated the AutoAdvice offering. AutoAdvice
combines software that runs at the client site with internal EMC
databases.
The solution automates the collection of system metrics for
servers and Oracle databases in an "agentless" way to eliminate
much of the manual system metric collection and root-cause analysis
that administrators have had to conduct for all devices attached to
networked storage.
Using the same "agentless" collector technologies found in EMC’s
AutoAdvice software, OpenScale enables customers to allocate
storage resources on demand, while billing only for the resources
used, and does not require manual onsite technical assistance.
According to Ross Allen, EMC Canada’s country manager, the
automated billing feature in OpenScale allows EMC to demonstrate
its ability to deliver storage service automation of the processes
and tasks of internal storage utility models.
Allen added that programs such as OpenScale are prerequisites
for achieving the benefits of utility models such as reduced
complexity.
Pat Cassidy, director of software marketing for EMC, said that
OpenScale provided a way of doing business with EMC that is easier
and completely automated.
"What OpenScale does is pre-positions arrays, switches and EMC
software at the client site," Cassidy explained.
"They already have the software tools they need to report and
monitor and reconfigure those [devices]. Now what we have done is
we’ve cut down the procurement cycle because [customers] can
literally, without EMC intervention, flip a switch and turn on
another hundred terabytes and be billed accordingly on a monthly
basis."
Designed for enterprise customers with large EMC installations,
OpenScale provides automated billing for EMC Symmetrix, EMC
CLARiiON, EMC Connectrix and EMC Celerra systems in addition to EMC
TimeFinder and SRDF software.
Cassidy noted that EMC has plans to tailor the solution to fit
medium enterprises in the near future.
Carly Suppawrites for ITWorldCanada.com