HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) Philippines sets to converge the full benefits of virtualization for midscale businesses and enterprise organizations through LeftHand Networks storage systems that are anchored on cost-efficiency and easy deployment.

LeftHand Networks is the creator of iSCSI (Internet Small Computers System Interface) storage area networks (SAN) that optimize virtual environments, which was later acquired by HP last November 2008.

“The IT infrastructure challenges of today are driven by cost, flexibility and complexity of managing and running servers linked to storages,” started Deane Hornsby, regional product manager for LeftHand Storage Solutions, technology solutions group of HP in Asia Pacific and Japan.

He continued: “With the LeftHand SAN portfolio, medium-sized businesses that are growing can better manage their cost with its pay-as-you-grow scale-out storage feature.”

Hornsby emphasized that having the system in-placed promotes productivity as it can be implemented with existing IP (Internet protocol) networks, thus, the absence of performance bottlenecks will result to increased data availability.

One of the LeftHand SAN solutions for growing yet cost-conscious firms is P4000. It is optimized for virtualized servers, database and e-mail applications. This model boasts of no application downtime characteristic when power, network and entire storage node failure occur as it replicates and automatically balances data volume across a cluster of storage nodes.

The deployment turnaround of this unit, according to an HP technical expert, is seven to 10 days while its installation may be completed in three to five hours.

“The markets we’re looking at for LeftHand SAN storage are companies in business process outsourcing [BPO], especially those that are dealing in increasing data storage for voice,” said Anthony Agustin Jr., enterprise server and storage manager, technology solutions group of HP Philippines. “These products will also have a niche in health care and other industries that value strict data protection when sharing large files and rich media content.”

According to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Forecast report in March 2009, the market for iSCSI (Internet Small Computers System Interface) (SAN) in Asia Pacific including Japan is projected to reach $433 million in 2009 and $624 million in 2010.