Software Problems Fixed While Administrators SleepSoftware Problems Fixed While Administrators Sleep

Nobody earns their pay more than the network and system administrators who are on call overnight and on weekends. While hardware is often programmed to "phone home" with approaching problems so replacements arrive before a customer even realizes there's a problem, software varies so much in configurations that beepers often go off in the middle of the night. Even after the on-call administrator arrives at the data center, he or she can be on the phone with tech support for hours before a problem is fixed.

Veritas Software Corp. on Monday reached a deal with Motive Communications Inc. that could make life easier for administrators. Adding Motive's Enterprise Service Solution for Storage Networks to Veritas products such as its NetBackup software backup and recovery offering will let administrators sleep while remote, pre-emptive, and self-support services are delivered from NetBackup, for example, in flux, back to Veritas support staff.

Veritas will use Motive remote services in its clustering and replication products, in addition to NetBackup backup and recovery software. It helps that Veritas has round-the-clock support, with technical experts in places including the United States, Europe, and Australia.

One industry analyst says it takes a focused vendor like Motive to deliver such remote services, and now Veritas can better support its customer base thanks to those services. According to Steve Kenniston at Enterprise Storage Group, Veritas now can "deliver the three things customers want: proactive troubleshooting, no waiting on an expert, and quicker resolution to problems."