HP Unveils High-end Storage Solutions and New Tape Library
HP unveiled new storage products for the high end—new functionality for Zero Downtime Backup and a new NAS product. At the same time, the company announced the new SureStore E Tape Library 6/140 and a SAN backup solution.
The new functionality for the HP SureStore E Disk Array XP256-based Zero Downtime Backup solution from HP OpenView OmniBack II is now available on Windows NT for Microsoft Exchange and file systems applications and on HP-UX for Oracle Parallel Server, as well as for Oracle, SAP R/3, file system, and raw disk. HP also announced that the new solutions now integrate with VERITAS NetBackup with Business Copy XP across the same platforms. For NAS, HP is offering pre-packaged NAS solution templates and has expanded its services.
HP’s new HP SureStore E Tape Library 6/140, priced starting at $95,000, is a modular tape library available in four- to six-drive configurations. It offers slot capacities of 100, 120 or 140, and both SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. The 6/140, currently offering DLT 8000 drive technology with native capacities of 4 TB, 4.8 TB and 5.6 TB, is upgradable to include new tape drive technology, such as HP’s Ultrium format LTO and Super DLT tape, when they become available. SAN backup, a pre-tested SAN backup solution for heterogeneous servers, will support HP-UX, NT and Solaris servers.
Pricing is hard to come by on some of the new solutions because, says HP, the Zero Downtime Backup Solution, the SureStore E NetStorage XP NAS solution and the SAN-based Tape Sharing solution are made up of a variety of components (hardware, software and services) and are not sold as a "set," or "whole package." Nevertheless, HP gives the cost of a typical configuration of the XP256 solution that the new solutions may encompass. A 1.5 TB system with 4 GB cache and one 4-port FC adapter: SureStore E Disk Array XP256 carries a price tag of $686,000. The XP software is $108,000 (Business Copy XP, Secure Manager XP, RAID, Manager XP, and LUN Configuration Manager XP).
HP also expanded a bit on its recent news that it was consolidating the two major parts of its storage operations as well as smaller storage groups under a single umbrella—the HP Storage Organization (HPSO). Bob McGraw, brand marketing manager for HPSO, explained that the new group is divided into five main units: data protection (tape libraries and formats), data management (disk systems, arrays, and direct attached storage, including NAS and SAN), extended platform (the high end, including high-end arrays and XP storage management software), networking (Ethernet hubs and switches), and integrated solutions (including SAN infrastructure and storage management software that is not device-specific). Networking was pulled under the general storage umbrella because HP "believes storage networking is where things are going, and we’re focusing on both NAS and SAN," McGraw explained.