CommVault Adds Remote Monitoring To Storage SaaS

software

ROMS is an extension of the SaaS model that CommVault first introduced in December, said Robert Brower, director of worldwide professional services for the Oceanport, N.J.-based storage software vendor.

ROMS adds remote monitoring to customers of CommVault's Simpana suite of data protection software regardless of whether customers are using Simpana to protect data locally or over the Internet, Brower said.

It is integrated into CommVault's support database for automated alert identification, log capture, and escalation, he said.

ROMS is installed on a master server to report any alerts related to backups, archiving, and data replication, Brower said. The alerts are sent to CommVault over a secure socket layer (SSL connection, where they are then compared against CommVault's knowledge base. Customers are then told how to handle the issues, as well as what CommVault is doing to handle the issues, he said.

"This removes the burden of handling alerts from the customers' personnel," he said. "Smaller customers in particular don't have the people to handle many of these issues."

The ROMS graphical user interface includes a dashboard that shows the different service levels and alerts for all the devices being monitored. "It's intended to give a good level of information for IT managers," Brower said. "They can log in and get information from multiple sites within five minutes."

ROMS is a subscription-based SaaS offering. The licensing is dynamic, Brower said, in that a license can be moved from one system to another as needed. "It monitors alerts on monitored servers, and traps alerts on unmonitored servers," he said. "So if it sees errors on unmonitored servers, a license can be moved to those servers to get the reports."

ROMS is available starting Monday. A typical midrange customer with one license for one server, three Media Agents for external storage devices, and 70 clients running a mix of service levels might expect to pay about $9,000 per year for the complete monitoring system, Brower said.