DataCore Software this week introduced upgraded data virtualization software designed to make managing storage-area networks easier.

The improved version of its SANsymphony software includes automated storage provisioning, storage resource management and identification/mapping - capabilities typically found in individual products hosted on separate computers.

SANsymphony virtualizes storage resources across a SAN into a single pool of data that can be managed from one console. The software installs on an Intel-based server, which attaches to a Fibre Channel switch and sits in the data path between servers and storage devices.

Analysts say virtualization software enables applications such as storage resource management to work better. Putting the data and storage management technologies in one place makes sense, they say.

“Putting software on an [specialized server] centralizes it and reduces the administration,” says Randy Kerns, a partner at the Evaluator Group, an analysis firm in Greenwood Village, Colo. “For enterprise data centers, where you have 80 to 100 servers participating in a SAN, having the time to upgrade software on all those servers is difficult and time-consuming.”

With the new release of SANsymphony, DataCore says customers can automate a variety of manual storage tasks.

In auto-provisioning, the software monitors the SAN, determines when storage needs to be added to serve the need of an application, server or user, and delivers it  in 128M byte increments to their allotment. At the same time, the administrator can view the pool of data, see how the free space is being used, and based on a rule OR threshold he has set, decide when to add more storage.

In addition, SANsymphony now discovers storage devices including Fibre Channel switches, storage arrays and clients on the SAN. After discovery, the software maps the SAN and presents an image to the administrator, which allows him to isolate cable and other hardware malfunctions.

DataCore is one of the first companies specializing in the virtualization of storage. It was founded in 1988 by executives from Veritas, Seagate and IBM and has received over $75 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, Vista Equity Parthers, Flagship Ventures, Hitachi and Intel.