Features - Storage Innovations:

IBM TIVOLI ANNOUNCES ENHANCEMENTS TO AUTOMATED STORAGE SW

IBM has announced additional self-managing functionality across its entire storage software portfolio designed to help customers respond to ever-changing storage demands while maintaining mission critical data protection.

The additional intelligent technology adds to Tivoli's complete line of storage management products which include SAN management, storage resource management and data protection software to further improve storage resource utilization and provide an overall decrease in storage related costs.

"A proactive, self-managing storage solution that integrates seamlessly with systems management software gives customers a unified view of their entire IT environment and reduces administrative complexity," said Laura Sanders, vice president, IBM Tivoli storage software. "We are fulfilling on our vision to autonomically manage storage capacity, backup and disaster recovery to enable IT to reallocate resources to other mission critical business needs."

New Autonomic Product Enhancements

IBM Tivoli is enabling three products with additional self-managing capabilities, IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and IBM Tivoli Storage Area Network Manager. The new capabilities being announced today include:

IBM Tivoli Storage Area Network Manager v1.2

Tivoli's new Storage Area Network Manager monitors and manages heterogeneous enterprise storage network environments. It offers new enterprise level scalability and can reduce SAN management complexities through its standards-based device discovery, topology rendering, monitoring and management of SAN components. It also serves as a single focal point for monitoring the health of the storage area network.

IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager v1.2

New capacity provisioning technology in Tivoli Storage Resource Manager ensures application availability by automatically provisioning storage as necessary to prevent file systems from running out of space. This autonomic approach reduces administrative workload allowing IT staff to focus on higher-level tasks. New functionality includes:

• Automated file system extension with provisioning to ensure file system space availability
• ESS subsystem reporting enables management of intelligent disk subsystems within the context of the enterprise storage environment
• Integration into systems management to enable use of a single enterprise-wide console

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 5.2

IBM Tivoli's flagship data protection storage management software provides a single solution for managing storage and protecting data across the network. It offers a high level of data protection while moving less data and requiring fewer tapes and less bandwidth to simplify storage administration through automated policy-based management. New functionality includes:

• Bare metal restore for Microsoft Windows XP and .NET
• Extended application and platform support
• Increased efficiency of managing across the SAN through automatic configuration
• New LAN-free enhancements including performance, tape mount retention and configuration
• Improved hierarchical storage management usability

"IBM Tivoli software was among the first in the industry to take a systems management-focused view of the storage network in an effort to help customers optimize their storage to meet their overall business needs," said Sanders. "The[se] announcements... further automate and integrate our storage management software solutions which ensure millions of systems and applications for customers worldwide."

About IBM Tivoli Software

IBM Tivoli software enables an IT organization to reduce the total cost of ownership and improve service levels of the IT infrastructure. Tivoli systems management software helps traditional enterprises and e-businesses worldwide manage security, storage, performance and availability, and configuration and operations. Backed by world-class IBM services, support and research, Tivoli software is one of five key IBM Software Group brands -- DB2, Lotus, Tivoli, WebSphere and Rational. For more information, visit www.ibm.com/tivoli.

Contact: Holli Haswell of Tivoli Software Media Relations, IBM Software Group, 512-286-3265, hhaswell@us.ibm.com.