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Hewlett-Packard and Hitachi Data Systems refreshed their storage lineups Tuesday with some new offerings aimed at the SMB market.
HP updated a number of its offerings and unveiled a new tape library aimed at small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), and HDS announced plans to further purse the SMB market with a new Microsoft Simple SAN for Windows Server 2003 offering and a reseller agreement with Ingram Micro.
HDS said the new offering makes it “the first storage array provider to achieve Microsoft’s Simple SAN for Windows Server designation in the complete solution category.”
The collaboration with Microsoft and QLogic builds on HDS’ midrange TagmaStore products unveiled last summer to produce “plug-and-play” storage area network (SAN) kits compatible with the Microsoft Simple SAN for Windows Server 2003 initiative.
The kits for the TagmaStore AMS200, AMS500 and WMS100 systems are designed to provide an “out of the box” SAN offering for SMBs to install a SAN quickly, in most cases under an hour, without on-site assistance, HDS said.
The kits, available in 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s configurations, include all the hardware and software necessary to connect servers to a first SAN or to extend a SAN from the data center to a distant workgroup, including a QLogic SANbox Fibre Channel switch, two QLogic SANblade Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBA), cabling to physically connect the SAN, and QLogic SANsurfer Express software for automating the entire process with wizards and managing the switch, HBA and storage system.
The TagmaStore AMS and WMS systems can be provisioned directly from Microsoft Windows. HDS said the SAN kit costs $3,000 excluding the storage system, and the AMS and WMS systems cost from under $10,000 to $30,000.
HP, meanwhile, unveiled hardware, software and services enhancements to its StorageWorks portfolio aimed at helping customers consolidate their storage environments.
Enhancements to the flagship HP StorageWorks EVA and XP disk arrays include:
- Concurrent iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity for EVA arrays to offer broader storage consolidation by using IP networks to centralize the 70 percent of servers not attached to FC SANs, plus dual iSCSI connectivity for redundancy;
- EVA array support for 4-gigabit SAN environments;
- Support for attaching EVA arrays to XP arrays for increased virtualization capabilities and allowing data management from a single pane of glass for HP and multi-vendor arrays; and
- Doubling the existing cache size of XP arrays for enhanced cache partitioning capabilities in consolidated environments.
HP also extended the maximum capacity of the HP StorageWorks 6000 Virtual Library System to 70 terabytes by adding support for new 500GB drives.
The new HP StorageWorks MSL2024 tape library offers improved backup consolidation for small and mid-size businesses through features such as Web-based remote management, an integral barcode reader and removable magazines for bulk loading and offsite storage. The MSL2024 stores up to 9.6TB in a 2U design that HP says is half the size of competitive offerings.
HP also advanced its branch office consolidation offerings by upgrading its family of HP StorageWorks Enterprise File Services WAN Accelerators with new software features and multiple fail-through network interface card options. HP also added additional operating system and product support for its Storage Essentials suite of multi-vendor storage resource management and SAN management software, and also boosted its services offerings.
