Quest Launches First Storage Management Tool

vFoglight Storage enables enterprises to manage virtual and physical storage deployments on a single screen

Quest Software, best known for its popular Oracle- and Microsoft-related software development tools, became the latest independent software vendor to bolster its position with new products in the burgeoning world of virtualisation.

The company on 31 August at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco launched its first storage management product, vFoglight Storage, which enables enterprises to manage virtual and physical storage deployments on a single screen.

Managing mixed environments is becoming a trend as companies continue to move more data into cloud storage. In these often jumbled onsite and offsite storage deployments, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of where everything is – and how much capacity is available – on a real-time basis.

“vFoglight Storage enables users to pinpoint performance, capacity and topology issues; meet SLAs; and achieve performance levels,” said Carl Eberling, Quest’s vice president and general manager of the virtualisation business unit.

“Organisations are struggling with virtualisation and cloud computing because it changes how they manage their infrastructure. Our software helps manage all this seamlessly within any type of system.”

End-to-end mapping

Featuring a familiar, Internet Explorer-like interface, vFoglight Storage allows users to view end-to-end mapping, from the virtual to physical layer, showing how virtual environments are configured at specific points in time, Eberling said.

This extended view provides the information and insight necessary to optimise storage paths, reorganise physical storage and, where appropriate, augment total storage capacity.

Other vFoglight Storage features, according to Quest, include: performance monitoring with detailed metrics; capacity monitoring, also with detailed metrics; topology views and on-the-fly graphical views that show relationships between virtual and physical storage infrastructures; out-of-the box alerts and detailed alarms that highlight deviations from industry best practices; and out-of-the-box reports on performance and capacity.

Quest is demonstrating vFoglight Storage at VMworld through 2 September, in booths 1113 and 1213, Moscone Center South. vFoglight Storage 1.0 is available for trial and download now.