Boxborough, Massachusetts-based HighGround Systems Inc is hoping for big sales in the storage management field with the release of its Storage Resource Manager (SRM) tool. This piece of technology is designed to simplify the administration of networked storage resources, increase data availability and lower the cost of protecting mission critical data. The product will be announced at the Windows NT Intranet Solutions Conference in San Francisco on August 14/15, where it will also be available from HighGround for beta testing. SRM is browser-based, giving network administrators the ability to monitor and manage the physical storage resources of computers, disks, partitions and users across corporate domains, says HighGround. Initially SRM will only be available for Windows NT 4.0, although HighGround is promising Unix agents by the end of the first quarter in 1998. Future SRM extensions include the integration of SRM with NT 5.0, in the form of the NT Changer Media Services (NTMS), which will provide an open API and management toolset for removable storage resources. But, release dates have still to be firmed up for this option. Also to be announced in San Francisco is Media Mirror, a back-up recovery tool which makes tape mirrors and allows administrators to export them to external sites in order to avoid the high costs of system failure. It will be on sale worldwide from October 1 for $300 per server. SRM will also be available from that date at $3,500 per server with client licenses from $99.
