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Adventures in Data Center Automation

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Jan 2 2008   11:10PM GMT

Digging into the DCAB 6’s functional areas: Configuration and Change



Posted by: Ryan Shopp
DataCenter, Ecora, BladeLogic, Cassatt, Configuresoft, HP Software, IBM Tivoli, mValent, Scalent, Solidcore, BMC, CA, EMC

There seem to be two key components or approaches to this functional area. Some vendors are focused on auditing & monitoring the configuration/state of a device while others are focused on that and the provisioning/deployment of configuration/software to a device. Typically, the vendors going across data center technology categories are audit-centric.

Vendors doing both Deployment & Auditing (listed alphabetical)

  • AlterPoint (for network devices)
  • BladeLogic (for appilcations, servers)
  • BMC (for applications, servers with Marimba acquisition and networks with Emprisa acquisition)
  • CA (for systems)
  • Cassatt (for systems, applications, networks
  • Cisco (for network devices)
  • ConfigureSoft (for applications, servers)
  • Ecora (for servers, applications)
  • EMC (for network with Voyence acquisition, for storage with ControlCenter)
  • HP (former Opsware for applications, servers, networks, storage)
  • IBM Tivoli (for applications, servers)
  • mValent (for applications)
  • Phurnace (for applications)
  • Scalent Systems (for servers, applications)
  • Symantec (for servers, applications with Jareva, Altiris and storage with CommandCenter)

Vendors focused on Auditing

Vendors that do both primarily for desktop’s which extends to provide some server configuration and change capabilities for the data center

Just as with my previous post on Performance & Capacity I’m not done with this one. I started going through the laundry list of vendors in the “virtualization” space but simply ran out of my allocated time for today. So I’ll pick back up on it at a later time

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Mark Tordoff  |   Jan 7 2008   11:30PM GMT

Ryan -

First, thanks for including Ecora in your list above. Ecora does not actually provide bare metal provisioning as part of its services, but does have the ability to validate that new hardware is configured to an established “gold standard.”

Another area that many configuration audit solutions are addressing is closed-loop change validation. By identifying all configuration changes in the environment and integrating with leading service and help desk solutions, approved changes can be validated and unauthorized changes can be identified and remediated.

Similar integrations are possible with security event and log management solutions to prioritize the level of risk potentially associated with a change, whether approved or not.

Collaborations like these should provide IT professionals with increasingly more proactive control over their environments.


 

Ryan Shopp  |   Jan 9 2008   4:54PM GMT

Mark-
thanks for the feedback, I was familiar with Ecora not doing bare metal provisioning but thought they offered some software/patch management capabilities with their Patch Manager product? Also great point about close loop process management for changes…there is probably some overlap here with what the Process Orchestration vendors are doing for a variety of processes, where vendors like Ecora focus that use case down to specific changes. Further thoughts?


 

Month in Review - January 2008 - Adventures in Data Center Automation  |   Jan 31 2008   5:04PM GMT

[…] Digging into the DCAB’s functional areas:  Configuration & Change - provisioning, patching, deployment, auditing, etc. […]