What is OnCommand?

[chriskranz]

From the marketing text on the website it all sounds really cool, but  looking at the detail it looks like it's just wrapping up the existing SnapManager and Operations Manager products? Is there any new features on this or stuff to look out for?

[ekashpureff]

Chris -

On the cover it looks like marketing, but there's more to it to me.

To me it's all about the integration of the tools in the new versions.

Using SnapMgr for Oracle as an example:

We have integration with Ops Mgr to manage RBAC users for SMO.

We have integration with Protection Mgr for SnapVault and Mirror relationships.

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene Kashpureff
NetAppU Instructor and Independent Consultant
(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[richard9 · Accepted solution]

Chris, Thanks for the question.

OnCommand represents an integrated set of functions designed to manage shared storage infrastructures and deliver on storage and service efficiency. Consolidation of our family of products under OnCommand gives us the opportunity to present the management product portfolio in the context of a solution narrative.  There are 2 elements to our management strategy.

1. MANAGE – Here we provide the capabilities to help customers maximize the effectiveness of their IT infrastructure in meeting and adapting to changing service levels with minimal cost and effort. (Efficiency).  This is accomplished with tools that manage the NetApp infrastructure delivering storage and service efficiency (Control, Automate and Analyze).   Additionally NetApp Management helps analyze the entire multi-vendor infrastructure stack to assess and ensure optimal efficient use.
2. IT INTEGRATION – Here we extend IT Service delivery to manage the NetApp storage ensuring that all our efficiency benefits are realized through other 3rd party management platforms (Access). We also provide an open, free SDK (Develop) that enables integration of management frameworks, in-house tools and applications to include NetApp storage infrastructure.

As you have noticed today's announcement of OnCommand did not introduce any new products.  Nonetheless our strategy to consolidate and simplify or product family has been underway for some time.  Recent announcements this summer included SANscreen V6.and SANscreen NetApp Edition both aimed at extending SANscreen to better support NetApp environments.

Additionally we announced integration with BMC to provide end to end automation and analytics

Further integration of the product family continues and you can expect to see more innovative products to be available in the near future.

Cheers,

Richard Treadway

[ekashpureff]

Richard -

Can you give some kind of input to my interpretation of the concept of integration to OnCommand ?

I made a very empassioned presentation to my class today about the integration of the products with regard to RBAC, relations to data sets and replication, SnapManagers, and Protection Mgr/Ops Mgr.

Am I off base here, or is this the root of the vision for OnCommand ?

I hope this response has been helpful to us all as a community...

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Fastlane NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.fastlaneus.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[richard9]

Hi Eugene,

It goes further than that.  OnCommand's vision is be the best management software for share infrastructures.  Our goal is to provide easy to use tools that deliver an integrated experience from a single user interface.  This means we will continue to consolidate our product portfolio to provide management functions that control, automate and analyze virtualized environments.  OnCommand will focus specifically on delivering storage and service efficiency.  I have attached a short OnCommand presentation that provides more detail.

Cheers,

Richard

[ekashpureff]

Richard -

Thank you for posting the slides.

I'll use them in class when talking about OnCommand, and share them with our other instructors.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Fastlane NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.fastlaneus.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

[chriskranz]

I met up with the OnCommand guys this week at Insight in Prague, and I am definitely impressed and looking forward to what is coming! As I understand it, this is just stage 1 for the new OnCommand platform, and I'm definitely going to get frustrated  waiting for future releases!

[richard9]

Hi All,

In addition to the OnCommand presentation I posted there is an OnCommand whitepaper available from the OnCommand products page.  I have attached it for your convenience

Cheers,

Richard