HPE Has Updated 3PAR Flash Storage for Hybrid IT

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced significant set of 3PAR storage innovations to date, including a next-generation 3PAR OS that provides a futureproof foundation for hybrid IT.

3PAR storage systems

• 3PAR Adaptive Data Reduction (ADR) delivers data compaction to lower capacity costs.

• Updates to 3PAR Peer Persistence mitigate risks by enabling DR across greater distances.

• Off-premises copy management with Recovery Manager Central (RMC) extends data protection beyond the array.

• Expanded automation capabilities for 3PAR StoreServ Management Console (SSMC) improve business agility.

As all-flash storage becomes the new normal, customers are realizing that pure-play all-flash systems cannot address the requirements arising from this ‘third wave’ of flash evolution. These demands go beyond the performance or cost of an individual flash array, meaning that all-flash storage vendors must also help customers simplify operations across the data center, mitigate risks from edge to core to cloud and support hybrid IT transformation.

The 3PAR innovations announced provide customers a future proof solution for these third-wave demands with support for cloud-native applications, datacenter-wide orchestration, tier-1 resiliency and a path to emerging technologies such as storage class memory (SCM) and NVMe.

“Customers see all-flash storage as only one part of a hybrid IT strategy,” said Bill Philbin, SVP, data center infrastructure group, HPE. “3PAR is a best-in-class array but we go further to optimize the full stack and provide data mobility across systems – an approach that has helped us grow faster than the market over the last 18 months.“ ⁽¹⁾

Lower cost and boost performance while assuring path to what’s next
Technology refresh cycles for storage are growing longer while at the same time flash media technology is changing faster than ever. This is why the company’s engineers an enduring design into its 3PAR architecture. One example is the recent tech preview of 3PAR 3D Cache for flash hyper-acceleration using SCM over NVMe, which showcases the ability to easily support new technologies.

Another example is the new 3PAR Adaptive Data Reduction (ADR) feature, which can reduce capacity needs by 75% ⁽²⁾. Spanning in-line deduplication and compression, ADR can be selectively applied and includes built-in intelligence to avoid wasting system resources. It also goes beyond compression with a 3PAR Data Packing algorithm that organizes data writes in a way that avoids the garbage-heavy processes that weigh down other flash storage arrays.

In addition, 3PAR OS enables customers to:

• Accelerate applications running over iSCSI to reduce latency by up to 40% via 3PAR Express Writes optimization ⁽³⁾.

• Better support cloud computing deployments with iSCSI updates that include expanded host connectivity and multi-tenant IP networking.

• Serve more workloads with 3PAR File Persona updates that double scalability, automate provisioning and enable cross-protocol file sharing.

These benefits are available at no extra charge as part of new, all-inclusive licensing that simplifies purchasing and reduces costs by up to 30% ⁽⁴⁾. Additionally, the 3PAR Flash Now (video) initiative enables acquisition of an upgraded 3PAR flash array plus networking and data protection for just pennies per usable gigabyte per month via a simple cloud-like consumption model.

Recovery Manager Central

Delivering resilient all-flash data center from core to cloud to edge
As critical workloads migrate to flash, risk mitigation is critical. The company reduces risk in hybrid IT deployments, starting with transparent application and host failover at the core of the data center via 3PAR Peer Persistence, which now has three-data center support for DR across greater distances.

For data protection beyond the array, Recovery Manager Central (RMC) provides application-managed snapshots and data movement from 3PAR to secondary StoreOnce systems. The newest version of RMC delivers 23x faster backup ⁽⁵⁾ and 7x faster restores than the backup ISV with 9x lower CPU consumption ⁽⁶⁾ – which minimizes backup impact on application servers. Due to all-inclusive licensing, RMC comes at no additional charge with the 3PAR array. In addition, RMC can deliver as much as a half million dollar cost savings over a three-year period compared to traditional ISV backup process. ⁽⁷⁾

StoreOnce systems

As part of the right mix of on-prem and off-prem storage, data protected on StoreOnce Systems can be replicated to the cloud thanks to StoreOnce VSA software in Microsoft Azure with support from Recovery Manager Central, Data Protector and other backup applications.

Peer Copy

Extending data protection to edge computing and software-defined storage (SDS), The firm also announced Peer Copy, a copy management feature within RMC that enables bi-directional movement of snapshot data between StoreVirtual VSA and 3PAR arrays. Customers can utilize Peer Copy with StoreVirtual VSA Ready Node reference architectures based on company’s ProLiant servers to protect SDS in locations such as remote and branch offices.

Automation for agility from data center to data service
As customers embrace hybrid IT to speed service delivery, the firm continues to embed automation and cloud-based analytic capabilities into 3PAR management tools that complement integration into OneView and company’s Synergy.

The 3PAR StoreServ Management Console (SSMC) includes the ability to automate and schedule large-scale data migrations of up to twenty-four 3PAR or supported third-party storage systems. In addition, SSMC features Smart SAN integration for fully automated, one-click SAN zoning of FC networks – reducing fabric provisioning effort by 90%. ⁽⁸⁾ Updates to the StoreFront Remote cloud analytics portal provide 3PAR customers with best practice recommendations to proactively reduce risk, manage software updates and assist in capacity planning.

Pricing and availability:

• 3PAR next-generation OS (3PAR OS 3.3.1) is available worldwide in Q1 2017 at no additional charge for 3PAR customers with valid support contracts.

• StoreOnce VSA for Azure is available worldwide in Q1 2017 starting at $1,400.

• Peer Copy and Recovery Manager Central are available in Q2 2017 worldwide at no additional charge for 3PAR and StoreVirtual VSA customers with valid support contracts.

⁽¹⁾ Based on IDC Q3 2016 Disk Tracker
⁽²⁾ Based on terms and conditions as specified in the Get Thin Guarantee.
⁽³⁾ Based on company’s internal performance testing measuring iSCSI write latency before and after express writes
⁽⁴⁾ Based on moving to an all-inclusive licensing model and factoring in savings from compression and other adaptive data reduction technologies
⁽⁵⁾ Based on internal the company testing of backup performance comparison between Recovery Manager Central for VMware environments and traditional non-HPE backup software
⁽⁶⁾ Based on internal firm’s testing of restore performance and CPU consumption comparison between Recovery Manager Central for file systems and traditional non-HPE backup software. 
⁽⁷⁾ License cost savings in three year period using RMC compared to traditional non-HPE backup software
⁽⁸⁾ Based on tests performed by Demartek on Gen 6 FC.