eStorage Has Some ESP of Its Own

by Alex Woodie

eStorage has a new software and services offering for its line of tape and disk drives that alerts eStorage's technical support team when problems are detected in these devices. The new offering, called eStorage System Protection, or ESP, is similar in some respects to IBM's Service Director, offered through Big Blue's own iSeries Extreme Support Personalized program, which ironically bares the same acronym, ESP, as eStorage's new offering. However, eStorage says its ESP offering has some advantages over IBM's.

ESP includes an OS/400 utility that continually monitors eStorage disk and tape drives for errors that could create a serious problem down the road. The utility works with the OS/400 server's secure synchronous data link control (SDLC) connection, and can share an electronic customer support (ECS) modem or use another modem line to transmit error information to eStorage's headquarters, in Irvine, California.

When the ESP utility detects an error, it also sends the eStorage technical support representative other information that can help him service the problem, like customer information, system configuration, operating system and PTF levels, and disk and CPU utilization. This information helps the eStorage technical support rep to decide the best plan of action. In some cases the problem could be taken care of with a simple telephone conversation with the customer. Or ESP could avert data loss for the customer by identifying bad disks before they fail.

ESP works with all eStorage 10K RPM and 15K RPM iSeries disks (the only iSeries-compatible internal disks besides those sold by IBM) and its line of AIT, LTO, and DLT drives. ESP was also designed to work with AS/400 disks sold by BCC Technologies; however, eStorage bought BCC's disk business earlier this year.

John Gimpl, eStorage executive vice president, says the goal with ESP is to provide quality service to the company's AS/400 and iSeries customer base, which typically runs mission-critical applications with little tolerance for downtime. "The remote monitoring capabilities of our new ESP software will allow us to respond very quickly to our customers and diagnose their problems when they occur," Gimpl said in a prepared statement.

The ESP hardware monitoring offering from eStorage should not be confused with ESP offerings from other vendors, namely IBM. IBM's Service Director hardware monitoring software and services offering is sold under Big Blue's ESP banner. But eStorage's ESP has some capabilities that won't be found in IBM's Service Director offering, eStorage says. However, eStorage could not be reached at press time to elaborate on these benefits.

ESP is available as part of the eStorage maintenance contract for disk drives. The eStorage customers who are on maintenance and have at least 15 disk drives can get ESP at no additional charge. Other customers must pay $495 per year, according to eStorage. More information about eStorage's disk and tape offerings is available at www.estorageinc.com.

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