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COMPUTER
maker Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched a new “family” of
disk arrays at entry-level prices put within the reach
of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
In a
press briefing late Tuesday, HP director for marketing
in the Asia-Pacific and Japan Supratik Bhowmik said the
StorageWorks all-in-one (AOI), modular smart and
enterprise virtual arrays (MSAs and EVAs) storage
systems are designed for “simplicity” of use. “When
setting up one of our MSAs, all you need to do is take
two steps instead of 16,” he added.
“Our
MSAs are ideal for consumers with a limited budget for
IT but [who] are looking for a solution that is rapidly
scalable for shared storage environments,” Bhowmik said.
“Customers will gain advantage from storage
consolidation advantage from storage consolidation and
can benefit from features like ‘snap and clone’ to guard
their data and provide value to their business.”
Singapore-based Bhowmik also noted a “boom” in SMEs in
the region, “which is why we are coming out with
products that will fit the needs of small and medium
businesses. Scaling down enterprise-level IT solutions
to fit SME needs is not the way to go because SMEs have
different needs from enterprise-level businesses. Our
storage array solutions are designed to meet those
needs.”
According to Bhowmik, the AOI servers are good for
“small, mom-and-pop shops that have just one information
technology [IT] specialist.” He also said the MSA arrays
are designed for midsize businesses “with, one IT guy
and one storage specialist” and the EVA arrays are HP’s
latest storage offering for larger businesses that have
“a full IT team.”
He said
transferring data to the new StorageWorks arrays takes
from one to three days “at the pure (data) migration
level” or a straightforward data transfer, without
application migration.
Built
into these server arrays is the capability to
“seamlessly” add capacity to an existing data center,
Bhowmik added, saying that HP’s MSA2000 servers for
midsize businesses “complement the HP BladeSystem” and
“feature a built-in management console to set up and
configure the storage without additional hardware and
software.”
According to press materials provided by HP during the
briefing, the scalable AOI arrays can hold up to 14
terabytes (TB) of data, the MSA2000 arrays “can scale up
to 36 TB of capacity” and the EVA4400 can store up to 96
terabytes of data.
“HP
continues investing in and expanding its range of
entry-level storage solutions to meet specific business
requirements of customers from all market segments,”
Bhowmik said. “While other SAN [storage area network]
environments usually produce significant management
overhead, the powerfully simple EVA4400 offers better
results for mid-size businesses because it automates
storage provisioning to advance capacity utilization and
it is easier to configure.”
Bhowmik
also said the price for the new EVA arrays is
“20-percent lower” than the price of similar products
marketed by their competitors. |
