Mid-Range 3par by HP

Hewlett-Packard Development company, L.P. announced innovations for its Converged Storage portfolio that break through complexities and inefficiencies with a single architecture for all sizes of client deployments.

Designed for virtualized, cloud and big data retention environments, these solutions include new HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, HP StoreAll Storage and HP StoreOnce Backup product offerings.

Many organizations waste as much as 70% of their budgets on capacity that is not actually storing data(Based on research data from Evaluator Group, indicating that on average companies are only using 30% of their physical disk capacity for applications.) while administrators struggle to manage dozens of disparate storage architectures. This creates a rigid sprawling infrastructure that often forces organizations to choose between features and affordability.

New hardware and software offerings
increase enterprise agility
In 2011, HP announced Converged Storage to address legacy storage limitations exposed by the growth of human information, infrastructure convergence and the emergence of IT-as-a-Service data centers. Its vision is polymorphic simplicity. This is a storage concept that enables a single-system architecture to exist in several forms, shapes and sizes from low to high, but retains common data services for block, object and file applications. This vision also calls for optimization for both HDDs and SSDs.

HP is expanding that portfolio to include:

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Storage

It is a midrange quad-controller platform offering Tier 1 storage availability and QoS features at an easy entry price point for organizations.(HP internal competitive pricing and feature analysis of competitors with tracked market share using the following Tier 1 definition: Tier 1 storage has more than two independent controllers, two paths to back-end disk, graceful handling of controller failures without impacting service levels, sub-LUN tiering across HDDs and SSDs, and synchronized three-way replication.) Supporting both block and file data services, the system is available with HDD and SSD or as an all-SSD configuration capable of performing more than 320,000 IO/s – 2.4 times that of a similarly priced competitive array.(Based on HP internal IOMETER test results of like hardware configurations using 8K 100% Random Reads comparing an All-SSD HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 vs. a market share leading midrange array.)

HP StoreAll Storage

It is a scalable platform for object and file data access, provides a simplified environment for big data retention and cloud storage that reduces the need for additional administrators or hardware. StoreAll Express Query was created by HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, and is a metadata database that allows clients to conduct search queries 100,000 times faster than previous file system search methods,(Based on HP internal comparison of traditional file system scans versus StoreAll Express Query. HP Express Query took 1.434 seconds to complete. The previous find command took 151,278.706 seconds to complete.) facilitating informed business decisions based on the most current data. Integration with HP Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) offloads processing tasks to StoreAll so that analytics can be performed with more current data and using less compute hardware. Additional integration with StoreAll and HP Autonomy Consolidated Archive, as well as certification of other independent software vendor applications, provides safe, long-term retention of digital assets.

HP StoreOnce 2000 and 4000 Backup

With support for HP StoreOnce Catalyst software, it provides efficient data movement and high-performance deduplication to reduce data protection costs in remote sites and data centers. The new models perform backup operations up to three times faster at a 35% lower cost than the closest competitive system.(Based on HP internal comparative analysis of publicly available data from major competitors.)

"Legacy storage vendors are simply not equipped to help organizations respond to new workloads, and bolting on new features to old architectures has created a nightmare," said David Scott, SVP and GM, Storage Division, HP. "HP’s unique set of Converged Storage innovations helps clients simplify infrastructure and reduce costs with a common architecture across storage segments and categories."

Improving client return
on information, individuals and infrastructure

• HP Converged Storage innovations help clients simplify storage infrastructure and respond to unpredictable demands while increasing the value organizations generate from their investments in three areas:
• Return on information-by enabling better and quicker decisions with technologies such as embedded search and analytics to extract value from all types of information.
• Return on infrastructure-by improving asset utilization through a polymorphic design and efficiency technologies to cut capacity needs in half.
• Return on individuals-by providing common data services and centralized management across storage systems to reduce administration time and complexity.

"To keep pace with an unprecedented rate of innovation at Nuance, we recognized an immediate need to enhance the storage infrastructure across our company," said Frederic Van Haren, senior director, Research and Development Labs, Nuance Communications, Inc. "With HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, our infrastructure can instantly adapt to changing workloads and allow our staff to focus on the innovative voice and language solutions we bring to market."

HP also announced new services that help clients optimize their investment and create the right environment for their businesses.

They include:

• Technology services that help optimize  StoreOnce performance and speed transition from HP Enterprise Virtual Array to HP 3PAR Storage.
• The HP Financial Services Capacity on Demand program helps clients respond to unpredictable needs and instantly acquire storage beyond baseline capacity.
• HP Storage Management Services integrate HP 3PAR StoreServ, StoreAll and StoreOnce Storage to offer HP’s new storage technology to enterprise clients with systems management expertise and operational best practices.

Pricing and availability
(Estimated U.S. list prices. Actual prices may vary.)

• The HP StoreServ 7200 is available globally starting at $20,000. HP StoreServ 7400 starts at $32,000. HP Priority Optimization will be available in 2013.
• HP StoreAll Storage is expected to be available globally on Dec. 20, with pricing as low as $0.91 per GB.
• HP StoreOnce 6200 Backup systems are available worldwide immediately for a starting price of $250,000. HP StoreOnce 2000 Backup systems start at $10,000 and HP StoreOnce 4000 Backup systems start at $30,000. Both systems are available worldwide. HP StoreOnce Catalyst Software licenses start at $500.