New HP MSA, StoreEasy, and Partner Program for SMBs

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. is helping SMBs and government agencies to maximize storage investments with offerings that include the next generation of its MSA entry disk array, enhancements to its StoreEasy Storage portfolio and a new program for channel partners.

Limited IT resources and a lack of storage expertise can make it difficult for SMBs to deploy the storage systems needed to support applications that require HA and performance.

The new MSA 2040 Storage system simplifies management and improves performance up to four times faster than similarly priced external disk storage solutions (based on HP internal test data of the MSA 2040 vs. IBM DS3500 and Dell MD3600.)

The enhanced StoreEasy Storage portfolio enables SMBs to manage and protect increasing amounts of file data without the need for special skills.

These solutions are available under Simply StoreIT program. It offers training, marketing and incentives for channel partners to address their small and mid-sized customers’ challenges and pursue new revenue opportunities.

"Virtualization and other emerging workloads threaten to drown SMBs in a sea of complexities that hinder, rather than support, growth," said David Scott, SVP and GM, storage division, HP. "Simply StoreIT allows our partners to serve their small and midsized customers who are stressed for time, budget and resources to support a growing business, with a stress-free storage solution."

Maximized SMB investments with entry-level FC array
Staff and budget limitations have often forced SMBs to compromise performance for affordability when deploying shared storage for new applications such as virtualization.

The MSA 2040 Storage eliminates that compromise with best price performance when compared to similarly priced FC arrays (based on HP internal test data of the MSA 2040 vs. IBM DS3500 and Dell MD3600 and publically available pricing information as of April 2013.) Offering 16Gb FC connectivity, the MSA 2040 is built to support increased demand. This bandwidth, along with a high-performance controller and SSD performance, supports increasing workloads and maximizes dollar per I/O operation.

As a result, customers will:

• Reduce data center footprint and energy costs with support for more VMs on less hardware.
• Protect existing investments and speed deployment with a data-in-place upgrade feature that allows customers on the previous MSA generation to move existing disk drives into the new MSA 2040.
• Maximize existing resources with a simple management interface that server administrators currently use with HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers.

To help customers maximize their MSA Storage investment, HP Technology Services provides a path to efficient storage consolidation and offers a complete set of enhanced support services:

• Improved SMB file and application efficiency, security and availability
• Integrating seamlessly with Windows infrastructure, the enhanced HP StoreEasy Storage portfolio enables customers to store, manage and protect unstructured data for thousands of concurrent users. It also provides persistent file and application availability.

Enhancements to portfolio enable customers to:

• Reduce administrative time by simplifying creation of new volumes and optimizing capacity with a new provisioning tool.
• Lower costs and improve capacity planning by examining existing file shares on local or remote systems, and predicting the capacity space savings delivered by StoreEasy’s native deduplication.
• Ensure data availability with integrated snapshot management for file recovery.
• Enhance productivity with a new wizard that accelerates configuration of clustered HP StoreEasy 3830 Gateways.
• Deliver turnkey data protection for HP StoreEasy 1000/5000 and manage cloud data protection needs with optional HP Data Protector and HP Autonomy LiveVault.

End-to-end program
for channel partners selling to SMB customers
New to the HP Just Right IT program, which spans servers, storage, networking and services, is the Simply StoreIT Program. It provides solution guides and reference architectures for HP channel partners and SMB customers to accelerate solution delivery. These solution assets target specific challenges in the critical areas of virtualization, backup and data protection, Exchange and SQL Server, and file consolidation.

The Simply StoreIT Program will be launched in coordination with HP’s distribution partners. It includes tools, resources and incentives to help channel partners accelerate time to revenue with storage solutions. Tools include quote and configuration templates, cobranded lead-generation assets, training and materials designed to increase sales opportunities.

Pricing and availability
Dual-controller MSA 2040 configurations begin at $11,470, with worldwide availability through HP and its channel partners expected to begin in July (estimated U.S. street prices; actual prices may vary.) StoreEasy Storage enhancements are available at no charge to existing and new customers starting in June. The Simply StoreIT Program is available worldwide.