Move Over Angry Birds – Hitachi Command Suite Goes iPad!
by Hu Yoshida on Mar 29, 2012
Hu: In my series on storage efficiencies, I posted on storage management efficiency. Here is another way that we have made our Hitachi Command Suite more efficient. My colleague Sean Moser provides a fresh perspective on software and some of the initiatives/discussion around it, I have asked him to give us his take on the changing landscape of storage management.
Guest post by Sean Moser, Vice President, Software, HDS
I always look forward to IDC’s annual storage predictions (although you need to register to access the webinar on the report) and was delighted to see mobile storage management at number 6 this year.
We went live in the Apple App Store with our first mobile app in January and are already getting great feedback from users.
Of course, mobile storage management isn’t just about porting everything to a tablet – some features make more sense than others. We scoped our first release to focus on the key storage management capabilities our users really needed.
Storage Administrators are playing a more strategic role
Configuring storage from an iPad might be novel, but it isn’t where the true value and impact of storage management mobility lies.
The job of the storage administrator is changing.
These days it’s less about storage device configuration and housekeeping, and more about delivering a service to the business. It’s about monitoring performance and making sure application service level objectives for storage are met. It’s about data center insight and visibility, not just from a storage array perspective, but also from the view of the storage consumers themselves – the applications, departments and regions that are consuming the storage resources. It’s about being able to quickly resolve performance bottlenecks and hot spots. And, it’s about being able to demonstrate quantifiable return on CAPEX investments to the budget holders, lower ongoing operational costs and intelligently planning for the future.
Our iPad app is all about putting that kind of insight right at the fingertips of administrators so they have immediate insight wherever they are.
Critical insight on-the-go
The first release provides mobility for key capabilities of the Command Suite’s Command Director module. The focus is on providing ‘virtually anywhere’ monitoring of the current operating status of mission critical applications and the supporting storage infrastructure:
- Application service level monitoring and compliance
- Application service level violation reporting and triage
- Storage system capacity and performance monitoring
- Capacity allocation and utilization insight, including virtual server environments
- Storage system health check
The screenshot below shows the main dashboard on the iPad. The look and feel is the same as the traditional Command Director application, so there is zero learning curve.
You can see more screenshot examples here or, to really see the UI in all it’s glory, check out our demo on YouTube:
Better still download a copy!
Where can I get my copy?
If you are a Hitachi Command Director user today, you can head over to the Apple App Store and download the iPad app for free!
If you aren’t using Command Director yet, then this might be the right time to try it! You can find out more about Command Director on our web site here.
So what’s coming next?
We will be introducing new functionality over the coming year, as well as adding Android support—
imagine being able to pop up capacity and performance trend reports on your tablet at the next budget meeting.
As always, we are keen to get your feedback. We prioritized the first wave of features based on the needs of our customers, so we’d love to hear how you think mobility will transform the way you manage your storage environment, and what capabilities would be most valuable to you.
