Features - Storage Innovations:

EMC EXPANDS ILM FOR PeopleSoft, CUSTOM APPLICATIONS

EMC Corp announced new PeopleSoft applications support as well as custom applications support on Oracle and Sybase databases for its EMC DatabaseXtender software. A key element in EMC's portfolio of information lifecycle management (ILM) solutions, DatabaseXtender enables organizations to gain more control over their information resources by automatically identifying and relocating inactive data -- at the application level -- to various storage tiers as its value and service level requirements change. As a result, application and database performance improves, operational complexity is reduced and customers are able to better utilize their existing heterogeneous infrastructures.

Now supporting PeopleSoft applications for financials, human resource management and supply chain, DatabaseXtender enables users to meet today's explosive data growth and the consequent challenges, including performance degradation, increases in hardware requirements to meet service level commitments, lengthening backup windows and regulatory demands to keep information available.

In addition, DatabaseXtender now supports custom, proprietary applications on Oracle and Sybase databases. A large percentage of enterprise application projects are customized to deliver the best possible solution to the organization. Massive amounts of data that is generated and then maintained over time -- due to compliance requirements, reports and test and development copies of the production database -- complicates these custom application initiatives. As the data grows and the production environment slows down, organizations can fall into the trap of providing a quick fix by purging data or purchasing additional servers and storage. This strategy only creates a temporary solution and can create exposure from a compliance perspective.

DatabaseXtender provides a set of applications to determine which data is inactive based on user retention policies, relocates inactive data to a less costly storage system and creates long-term XML archives. Integration with PeopleSoft and custom applications provides users transparent access to all data in both primary and secondary databases. As a result, users benefit from a reduced application database footprint which lowers costs and drives increased performance with consistent service levels.

Mark Lewis, executive vice president of EMC Software, said, "Applications -- whether they are off the shelf or are custom built -- drive an enormous amount of data, critical to an organization's success. In order to leverage the most useful data within the application, the data should be moved and stored within a tiered environment. Moving data to a tiered environment not only better serves the user, but strengthens database performance as well as reduces storage requirements for active production data. EMC DatabaseXtender provides a key component within a customer's ILM strategy, automatically identifying and proactively archiving growing applications data to various storage tiers based on its business value."

DatabaseXtender software for PeopleSoft and custom applications consists of the following applications depending upon configuration:

• DatabaseXtender Analyzer -- for proactive monitoring and reporting, DatabaseXtender Analyzer monitors areas of application data growth, diagnoses potential problem areas, and recommends policy-based strategies for optimal performance and stability. Users can then preview the effects of these actions to determine which approach delivers the greatest benefit.
• DatabaseXtender Optimizer -- designed to solve data growth issues while maintaining transparent access to the data through native applications. Using information gathered by Analyzer, users can configure Optimizer to relocate "inactive" information into a secondary data store. Once polices are set for an application module, Optimizer ensures the inactive data is successfully relocated based on data-retention policies.
• DatabaseXtender Archiver -- gives users the option to tier storage through an application-specific information lifecycle management strategy. This offers IT departments the ability to dedicate high-end resources to production data while simultaneously mapping aged, historical data to lower-tier storage devices. Archiver enables users to identify aged data from either the production database or Optimizer and relocate it to an XML flat file archive for sustainable, long-term access on low-cost storage media. Through this process Archiver can also help deliver on corporate compliance objectives.

Michael Fisch, analyst at The Clipper Group in Wellesley, Mass., said, "EMC DatabaseXtender provides an important piece to an organization's data management and information lifecycle management strategy. Based upon the product's ability to move data within applications residing on databases, it allows organizations to fully leverage their existing storage infrastructures and optimize the placement of data on that storage. This is important to applications, like PeopleSoft, that continually generate a significant amount of data whose value and service level requirements change over time."

DatabaseXtender support for PeopleSoft Releases 7.5, 8.0 and 8.3 running Oracle databases and custom applications running Oracle and Sybase databases are immediately available.

About EMC

EMC Corp is a provider of products, services and solutions for information storage and management that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.emc.com/.