New StorageWorks kit arrives next month

HP IS BUSY sacking workers in the Business Critical Server Group, but things are spinning along quite nicely in Howard Elias' Network Storage Solutions Division. the spin doctors in Howard Elias' HP Network Storage Solutions group have been rolling out new products at a blistering pace. In the last quarter, HP's NSS debuted some 33 new storage products—or an average of one product every three days—as well as the industry's first network storage virtualization framework, based on HP VersaStor technology and the HP OpenView Continuous Storage Appliance.

We recently learned that Mr. Elias & Co. are readying yet another product barrage that's likely to materialize next month. Here's a preview of some of the key products we can expect to see on or about April 15.

Faster, better higher-density disk drives are right around the corner. While incumbent 73GB drives will remain available, HP will increase the speed of these drives from 10K RPM to 15K RPM. Customers whose need for speed is exceeded by their need for drive capacity will be pleased to learn that HP's new high-capacity disk offering will be a 146GB 10K RPM drive.

This drive will be compatible with both EVA and XP1024/128 storage systems. Equipped with the new 146GB drive, the modular EVA product will support up to 34TB with a single pair of controllers. Customers will be able to populate a single EVA cabinet with up to a whopping 24TB of storage capacity.

For those who have even more prodigious data demands, HP's high-end XP Disk Arrays can be populated with 146GB drives to provide up to 150TB in a single system. Not only does the XP on Steroids offer the highest scalability in the industry, it can significantly lower management costs while raising the incidence of headaches among EMC engineers and salespeople. The time required to configure and manage mass quantities of data should be reduced as well, since the new and improved XP Disk Array features automatic LUN-size configuration capability.

Space-constrained HP ProLiant and AlphaServer customers should be particularly interested in the HP StorageWorks 3U Rackmount Kit, a high- density, rack-mountable tape drive enclosure for direct-attach SCSI backup and archiving applications. The enclosure provides dynamic scalability, allowing users to add and migrate to new tape technologies as their capacity and performance needs grow. As these requirements grow, TCO should decrease thanks to the integration of value-added hardware features that can increase the efficiency of the tasks of configuring, implementing, and managing external storage resources.

Of note to cost-conscious customers, the HP StorageWorks Modular SAN Array 1000 is now qualified as a mezzanine backup and restore solution using disk-to-disk backup technology provided by ISVs. Compatible with HP Data Protector, VERITAS NetBackup and Computer Associates BrightStor, the MSA1000 supports the attachment of multiple clusters and individual servers to a single array. Also provided is support for concurrent access to an MSA1000 by servers running Microsoft, NetWare, and Linux operating systems.

The MSA1000 can be equipped with an optional 3-port embedded FC-AL hub, enabling the array to serve as a building block for a low-cost 2-node cluster or a simple SAN. The MSA1000 provides new support for Ultra320 SCSI drives including HP's new 146GB 10K and the 72GB 15K offerings. Also new is the hot-plug capability to easily add new disk drive enclosures and clusters. Accordingly, more headaches at EMC are likely to ensue.

For further public-domain information on new HP storage products and strategies, the HP Product Roadmap Whitepaper located on the Web at www.hp.com/hpinfo/ newsroom/press/2002/020507b.html has more data. µ