EMC Delivers "Cloud to Ground" Root-Cause Analysis for Data Centers

LAS VEGAS, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- EMC WORLD 2011 --

News Summary:

• The latest version of Ionix Server Manager delivers complete virtualization visibility by adding discovery and monitoring of the VMware® vSwitch. This new capability allows EMC to uniquely integrate physical and virtual management, which solves a critical IT challenge by eliminating management "blind spots."
• Through integration with VMware vCenter and a full understanding of the vSwitch, Server Manager automatically identifies virtual machines (VMs) whose mis-configured virtual network settings have effectively made these VMs—and the applications running on them—unavailable.
• With this new integration and understanding, EMC's cross correlation and analysis now spans VMs, vSwitches and virtual networks, VMware ESX Servers, the physical network, and the rest of the IT Infrastructure. The seamless, unified view of IT relationships that is provided—spanning from virtual to physical—allows customers to gain extensive insight and awareness into their virtualized data centers.
• The addition of vSwitch discovery and monitoring uniquely extends the scope of the EMC Ionix IT Operations Intelligence management suite to help IT managers rapidly resolve problems and assure IT service delivery , even as virtualization and cloud computing introduce their own new management challenges.

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced the availability of the newest version of its EMC® Ionix™ Server Manager software. Through rapid "Cloud to Ground" discovery and analysis capabilities, newly enabled by integration with vCenter and a full understanding of VMware's vSwitch, EMC Ionix Server Manager 3.0 enhances users' ability to effectively manage and troubleshoot virtualized data center networks and infrastructure. By extending automated discovery, root-cause analysis and business-impact analysis through the virtual network, and down to the VM level, users can immediately and accurately pinpoint and address issues in complex IT infrastructures—whether in the physical or virtual environment, or both.

As organizations expand server virtualization to include mission-critical applications, ongoing VM creation, movement and use of virtual networking introduces new challenges for data center managers when they need to isolate and resolve infrastructure issues. Similarly, cloud infrastructures, by nature, are fluid and dynamic, requiring management and analysis tools that are geared for rapidly changing infrastructure.  In virtualized data center environments, the links between physical and virtual infrastructure elements can also be a potential problem source. Until now, however, mutually distinct tools for the analysis of physical and virtual infrastructure were required. This disparate and inefficient approach to problem resolution and management unnecessarily places limits on an IT organization. EMC Ionix Server Manager 3.0 changes all this by allowing a holistic approach to virtualized data center management.

Additional Product Highlights

EMC Ionix Server Manager 3.0:

• Discovers and monitors VMware vSwitches on ESX® servers
• Monitors the health of server clusters (another form of server virtualization), including Microsoft Cluster Services (MSCS), Symantec Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), and BigIP F5 LoadBalancer servers
• Supports Microsoft Hyper-V, in addition to VMware ESX
• Determines when key processes are unavailable
• Identifies when servers are operating in a degraded state (through integration with IBM, HP, Dell, and Oracle server hardware monitoring)

Server Manager requires concurrent use of Ionix Service Assurance Manager and Ionix IP Availability Manager.

Customer Quote

CompuCom, the leading IT outsourcing specialist, incorporates international standards, real world experience, and ITIL best practices into the company's service desk, managed desktop, managed security, data center, remote infrastructure management, and hosted virtual desktop services.

"When a network or infrastructure issue arises, identifying the source of the issue is critical, and often the identification process takes as much as or more time than the actual fix. Virtualization adds another dimension to the discovery process, so having the ability to discover and monitor at the virtual machine level is essential as we continue to expand our virtual environment. CompuCom's implementation of Ionix Server 3.0 allowed us to consolidate and streamline the management of our physical and virtual infrastructure."

-- Michael Cruise, Managing Solution Director, CompuCom

Industry Analyst Quote

"Virtualization management is clearly a growing area of focus for IT managers—and for good reason. The inability of an enterprise manager to be able to efficiently pinpoint and resolve infrastructure issues at the virtual machine level is a potential stumbling block in the process of deploying virtualization and cloud technologies.  EMC's Ionix Server Manager 3.0 clears the way for effective problem resolution in these environments, and delivers an elegant and efficient solution to the management challenges that inevitably face IT managers as they enable virtual and cloud-based infrastructures."

-- Jim Frey, Managing Research Director, Network Management, Enterprise Management Associates

EMC Executive Quote

"The industry's adoption of VMware ESX virtualization continues at a torrid rate, yet the availability of management solutions that can address the entire range of the resulting infrastructure has not kept pace. Only EMC can offer a fully integrated and automated solution for identifying the root cause and business impact of problems across virtual and physical environments. The addition of Ionix Server Manager 3.0 extends the value of the EMC Ionix IT Operations Intelligence solution suite, differentiates it with capabilities that competitors simply can't deliver, and helps enable customers to make their journey to the cloud."

-- Jay Mastaj, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMC Ionix

Please visit www.emc.com for more information on Ionix Server Manager 3.0 and other Ionix IT Operations Intelligence infrastructure management solutions.

Availability

EMC Server Manager 3.0 is generally available from EMC and through Ionix Direct Resellers.

To track the latest EMC World 2011 happenings visit www.emc.com/emcworld2011.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC and Ionix are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. VMware and ESX are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (v) component and product quality and availability; (vi) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.'s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (vii) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (viii) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (ix) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (x) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xi) fluctuating currency exchange rates; (xii) threats and other disruptions to our secure data centers or networks; (xiii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (xiv) war or acts of terrorism; and (xv) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

SOURCE EMC Corporation