Data Center Strategies for the CIO
Data center operations automation has been an elusive IT goal since the first data center. It takes a lot of effort to keep complex technologies running let alone performing at anywhere near their peak. The task is not made any easier with increased demands for and promises of responsive IT infrastructure that is dynamically adaptive to changing and evolving business needs.
The tradeoff between reliable, high-performance operation and changing configurations is a near-perfect inverse ratio. Making changes manually only worsens the ratio. The good news is that data center automation has begun its progression from a gleam in the eye of the far-sighted, but tongue-tied vendors to the reality of business service management (BSM) and, what has become known at its most basic level as Run Book Automation.
Beginning as ad hoc scripting, vendor-provided data center automation ranges from BSM's high level process automation to event-driven executable point solutions to integrated solution suites. Products exist to automate any and all DC operations: job schedulers, server (desktop and mainframe) management, storage management, device management, compliance management and control, including integrated suites. We've ranked these automation tools and identified three leading lights directed at different problem areas.
Data center automation tools
The top winners in this category are:
- Gold Award:
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Veritas Server Foundation (VSF)
In first place is Symantec's Veritas Server Foundation (VSF), part of their Data Center automation solution set. Of particular interest are Patch Manager and Application Director. Patch Manager's automated integration with software vendors'...
- Silver Award:
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Coming in second is Opalis' OIS 5.3, which combines an accessible interface for easy control statement integration to automate the implementation of ITIL processes.
- Bronze Award:
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CA AutoSys Workload Automation
AutoSys Workload Automation is an application of acquired technology to automate event-driven job scheduling across server platforms and operating environments. Effective workload management enables IT business responsive and adaptive data center...