Provisioning software improves

Veritas Software on Monday began following through on efforts to join the utility space, although the storage software giant isn't alone.

The company last month had announced intentions to participate in utility computing. Using technology acquired from Jareva Technologies earlier this year, Veritas introduced OpForce 3.0, software that permits automated server provisioning. Also on Monday, RLX Technologies and Altiris released software that looks to ease the administrative tasks of running a datacenter.

The new version of OpForce 3.0 seeks to eliminate the need of an IT administrator to manually configure and provision servers for specific applications, said Jeremy Roe, a Veritas spokesman. He said Version 3.0 combines Jareva's technologies with existing advancements from Veritas, in Mountain View, Calif.

"The software can now also discover instances of installed Veritas File System and Volume Manger," said Roe, explaining that the settings for these applications also can be replicated over when provisioning a new server.

Also making noise in this area Monday is Houston-based RLX Technologies. The company announced RLX HPC Cluster Manager -- software that helps manage large cluster-based computing environments. The software is already on RLX's Control Tower XT Blade operating system and can be turned on for $50 per clustered ServerBlade.

Sal Lake City-based Altiris on Monday introduced a new version of Altiris Server Provisioning Suite -- software that too automates some of the manual tasks associated with server deployment and configuration.

The new version of Altiris Server Provisioning Suite features what the company calls integrated patch management and a monitoring capability. The former was added to help install Microsoft-issued security patches, while the latter permits real-time monitoring of servers. This means the software can re-provision or add more resources as required by the needs of applications.

The aforementioned are not the only ones in the space. Computer Associates, of Islandia, N.Y., also wants to help IT administrators automatically provision resources and issued the following statement in response to the Veritas news.

"Veritas's OpForce announcement hints at the daunting task Veritas is faced with in attempting to catch-up to CA. They have to jump on board a train that is not only well ahead of where they are, but moving faster as well -- integrating systems, network, asset,  security, storage, and service management across heterogeneous mainframe, distributed and wireless environments." The quote was attributed to David Hochhauser, vice president of Unicenter's brand management. Unicenter is CA's system management software.

Veritas' Roe acknowledges that Veritas sees tighter integration with its storage products further down the road. For now Veritas sees its SANPoint Control as the software customers will use to provision storage and OpForce for server provisioning.

"Customers are asking to do both from one location," said Roe. "It's hard to know at this point how they may blend."