SAN Management Software Magic Quadrant

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1 Markets, C. DiCenzo, R. Paquet, N. Allen, R. Passmore Research Note 22 April 2003 SAN Management Software Magic Quadrant In the storage area network management software market, expect increased competition to expedite the availability of richer capabilities, and tighter integration with storage resource management and provisioning products. Core Topic Enterprise Management: Storage Management Key Issue Which product and service vendors will become leaders in storage management? Since our first assessment in 2002, storage area network (SAN) management products have become richer in functionality. Many, however, still require the launching of multiple element managers to fully manage the environment. This puts the burden on the administrator to learn multiple user interfaces to bridge information from module to module. History Since the original SAN Management Magic Quadrant was published, only BMC Software is no longer selling its product. BMC Software has withdrawn the Patrol storage management product set. Hewlett-Packard (HP) acquired Compaq and, while it continues to sell the SANworks Network View product, the HP product has been identified as the focus of all future development. Thus, Gartner did not rate Network View in this Magic Quadrant. Vixel sold InSite Professional to Fujitsu Softek, its major reseller, and that product is now offered by Softek as SANView. Computer Associates International (CA) has released its SAN management product, and the IBM product rated in this report is a major rewrite, essentially replacing its previous product with a new one. CreekPath Systems, InterSAN and Storability released storage management products that include SAN management as part of a broader solution. The two original equipment manufacturer (OEM) providers, Prisa Networks and Netreon, have been acquired. Storage Networks, which has announced a product with SAN management capabilities, has no references and the company is re-evaluating its product strategy. Other vendors have also announced products, but to be included in this Magic Quadrant, a vendor must not only be actively offering a product, it must also have referenceable customers (see "SAN Management Software Magic Quadrant Criteria"). Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Figure 1 shows the SAN Management Magic Quadrant. Figure 1 SAN Management Magic Quadrant Challengers Leaders EMC Ability to Execute Veritas Software Hewlett-Packard McDATA CreekPath Systems IBM InterSAN Fujitsu Storability Computer Associates International Sun Microsystems As of April 2003 Niche Players Visionaries Completeness of Vision Source: Gartner Research (April 2003) EMC and Veritas Software Remain in the Leaders Quadrant EMC has continued to enhance and integrate its SAN management product with the ControlCenter architecture. EMC's ControlCenter 5.1 now supports a common repository and is an integrated component with other ControlCenter products. ControlCenter will continue to be the market leader in SAN management, as ControlCenter expands into storage provisioning with Automated Resource Manager, and storage resource management (SRM) with StorageScope and the rest of the EMC storage management product set. SANPoint Control (SPC) from Veritas has had strong zoning capabilities with Brocade and McDATA, but it has been limited in its access to array information. Veritas' strength has been and is on the server side, especially when the company's Volume Manager product is also installed. The product offers an application view of storage, supporting Oracle, Microsoft Exchange and Veritas products. But SPC will go through significant changes as Precise, Jareva and NTP Software reporting product acquisitions create new product opportunities for Veritas. 22 April

3 CreekPath Enters the Magic Quadrant in the Visionaries Quadrant CreekPath is new in the Magic Quadrant with its AIM Suite 2.5, focusing on provisioning with SAN management as a base for the rest of the solution. SAN management is not a separate product, so only clients interested in storage provisioning should consider CreekPath. But CreekPath understands that SAN management is a component of an overall storage management solution. Client feedback has been strong, and while most have purchased the product for its provisioning, the SAN management features are the first capabilities used. Niche Players Quadrant: A Mix of Niche and Early Market Players McDATA and Sun Microsystems are in the Niche Players quadrant with products that are truly designed to support a target audience. The rest of the vendors are there because they have yet to execute on a broader vision or capture the larger market. McDATA's SANavigator 3.1 does not have server agents or strong support for arrays, but it continues to improve its tools for storage network management and customers find it easy to install and affordable. Although it does not allow for browser access to the product, it does support all the key platforms for its management console. Reporting is focused on real time. Zoning support is stronger for McDATA and QLogic than for Brocade, which excludes McDATA from its application programming interface (API) program. Sun's StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager 1.0 is running only on Solaris management stations and supporting only the storage components that Sun sells, Hitachi and T3 arrays, and QLogic's, HBA's, and Brocade's switches. IBM has replaced the IBM Tivoli Storage Network Manager evaluated for the previous Magic Quadrant with Tivoli SAN Manager v.1.1 (based on WebSphere architecture), which began shipping in October While this is a stand-alone product today, IBM is providing a road map that integrates this product with the SRM capacity management and reporting products acquired from TrelliSoft. IBM has weak reporting and array support, and has taken a position of waiting for industry standards rather than leveraging proprietary APIs. CA's product, BrightStor SAN Manager 1.1, has good Brocade support as well as the basic discovery and visualization, but limited support for other devices or integration with other CA products. In February 2003, CA purchased Netreon, adding 22 April

4 knowledgeable SAN management engineers plus a strong SAN design capability both of which should expedite development. The product uses the Unicenter common services, and while being a Unicenter management user is not a requirement, for most of CA's early references, CA's integration plans would imply that the full potential of this product will require the presence of related CA products. HP offers a stand-alone SAN management product called OpenView storage node manager and complementary OpenView storage optimizer, but the channel is encouraged to sell the OpenView Storage Area Manager 3.0 suite, which includes SRM, provisioning and chargeback. Customers reported the SAN management product was easy to install and use, even though it only does zone presentation rather than zone management and has limited depth in array management. The 3.0 version that shipped in November 2002 dramatically expanded the reporting capabilities that include real-time and historical reporting. HP's focus on this product set has been limited and confusing in light of the competing products acquired from Compaq that are still offered. In April 2002, Fujitsu acquired Vixel's SAN management software business and has continued to enhance that product (now Softek SANView), even as it works to integrate it more tightly with the Softek Storage Manager. But this is not an area of major focus for Fujitsu Softek. Storability and InterSAN provide SAN management capabilities as part of their broader storage management offering. As with CreekPath, if SAN management at its basic level is the requirement, pricing alone will make these products unappealing. If customers are looking for a solution that goes beyond SAN management, then these products deliver SAN management as part of that broader solution. Storability's strength is in the SRM area of capacity management and reporting. InterSAN, like CreekPath, is focused on provisioning. Users should note that SAN management is increasingly becoming a component of a broader solution. McDATA and Sun are the only vendors with a stand-alone SAN management solution. The rest of the vendors either offer SAN management functions as part of an integrated solution such as CreekPath, InterSAN and Storability or have a SAN management product that is designed to serve as one of the building blocks of a storage management solution, such as EMC, Fujitsu Softek and HP. Vendors such as IBM and CA have essentially stand-alone products today, but a near-term road map to more aggressively integrate these products with other solutions in their portfolio. And Veritas' single solution is evolving more into a suite of 22 April

5 integrated products. Nonetheless, most of these products can be used in a stand-alone fashion for users looking to manage only the devices that comprise their SAN. Acronym Key API CA HP OEM SAN SPC SRM Application programming interface Computer Associates International Hewlett-Packard Original equipment manufacturer Storage area network SANPoint Control Storage resource management Bottom Line: Customers now have a range of storage area network management products to choose from, although work still must be done to make them easy to use and fully functional. For some users, selection will depend on whether basic SAN management is desired or if the user is ready to commit to a broader and deeper management strategy. Although fabric device management is fairly robust, the storage devices to be managed will also be a consideration with many more options now available although there are still many holes in coverage. However, enterprises should continue to view all SAN management purchases as tactical. Moving forward, users should recognize that SAN management functionality will likely be integrated in other storage management products as a base component of functionality. 22 April