Home > Data Storage News > Hewlett-Packard adds Ibrix-based network-attached storage, upgrades storage virtualization
Data Storage News:
EMAIL THIS

Hewlett-Packard adds Ibrix-based network-attached storage, upgrades storage virtualization

By Dave Raffo, Senior News Director
04 Nov 2009 | SearchStorage.co.UK

Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. today launched a network-attached storage (NAS) platform based on software acquired from Ibrix. The new platform is part of a rollout of HP storage virtualization and server virtualization products.

The StorageWorks X9000 Network Storage System is driven by the Ibrix Fusion cluster file system HP picked up in the July acquisition. The X9000 family consists of three systems, which all manage data under one namespace with automated tiering.

HP also upgrades its SAN Virtualization Services Platform (SVSP), and added support for Microsoft Hyper-V Live Migration to its Cluster Extension EVA software.

More on storage virtualization
Storage virtualization for affordable disaster recovery 

IBM adds STEC SSDs to SVC storage virtualization device 

Issues you'll face implementing storage virtualization
HP's new file storage platform

The StorageWorks X9300 Network Storage Gateway is a two-unit rack-mounted NAS head that fronts HP storage as well as EMC Corp. Clariion and Dell EqualLogic SANs. The gateway has Fibre Channel, iSCSI, InfiniBand and SAS connectivity options.

The X9320 is an appliance based on HP ProLiant servers and MSA storage. It supports SAS and SATA drives.

The X9720 is built on the Extreme Data Storage platform that HP launched last year based on software acquired from PolyServe in 2007. The 9720 runs on HP BladeSystems with SAS JBODs, and scales to manage petabytes of data.

HP's marketing director for unified storage Lee Johns said the X9720 is a "logical replacement for the Extreme platform," adding HP will continue to sell PolyServe software with its EVA storage for use cases such as high-performance computing and Microsoft SQL consolidation.

"They've moved this out quickly," IDC analyst Rick Villars said of the Ibrix-based platform. "Sometimes these things slow down after mergers, but they've moved fast on this. PolyServe is still useful for things like database archive, but they're shifting toward the Ibrix platform for more content-centric workloads."

StorageIO analyst Greg Schulz said he would like to see HP make the X9000 a completely open platform. So far, only the gateway supports other vendors' storage and that support is limited to two vendors.

"This is a step in the right direction. They can push further into bulk storage market now but they still need to open it up more," Schulz said. "They need to support other software and position it as an open storage platform."

SAN virtualization

HP sells its SVSP storage virtualization product through an OEM deal with LSI Corp., but Johns said HP co-develops a version of the device specifically for its storage. SVSP 3 has greater integration with EVA's Command View management software, lets customers configure EVA LUNs through the SVSP and automatically creates SVSP storage pools from capacity provisioned across multiple EVA systems. HP also doubled the capacity of SVSP to 2 PB.

"That's HP's diamond in the rough," Schulz said of SVSP. "This gives them rapidly deployable virtualization platform for data movement, data migration, load balancing, high availability and disaster recovery. It's a huge opportunity for HP to protect their installed base and gives them a path to leverage their technology as a storage pool."

Greater Hyper-V support

HP also supports Microsoft's new Live Migration for its Hyper-V hypervisor with its Cluster Extension automatic failover software for EVA.

HP's announcement comes a day after EMC Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and VMware Inc. made their VCE product alliance official, but Johns said HP will not favor Microsoft's Hyper-V because of VMware's deepening technology relationship with HP rivals EMC and Cisco. (EMC owns a controlling interest in VMware, and Cisco is an investor in the server virtualization company).

Johns said HP is hypervisor agnostic. "We will support multiple virtualization vendors on our platform," he added.

Considering HP already has a huge VMware installed base, it's unlikely to make any sudden shift to Hyper-V.

"I wouldn't be reading into this that HP is not going to support equivalent functionality in VMware," Villars said.

The X9300 and 9320 will be available in mid-November and the X9720 will be available in January. HP says the starting list price for the X9000 family will be $1.50 per gigabyte. SVSP 3 is available with a starting price of $31,032 for a 1 TB configuration and an SVSP VM license. Cluster Extension EVA software with Hyper-V Live Migration will be available in late November for a list price of $5,280.



Tags: NAS or file virtualisationVirtualised storageVIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   



RELATED CONTENT
NAS or file virtualisation
Storage roundup: College uses clustered NAS; new Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture; and more
Network-attached storage (NAS) basics for UK data storage managers
Improving storage utilization with thin provisioning
Managing capacity planning with thin provisioning
Thin provisioning brings utilization and capacity benefits to data storage, but with a caveat
Data storage management case studies from SearchStorage.co.UK
AutoVirt steps deeper into file virtualization
Podcast: How file virtualization can benefit your storage infrastructure
Network-attached storage clusters for virtualized environments
Tiered storage, data reduction technologies manage capacity growth for companies as IT budgets shrink

Virtualised storage
The green data centre: Business best practices
Virtual machine (VM) backup has RLAM investing in Veeam Backup & Replication
FalconStor NSS 6.0 helps RBKC automate VMware disaster recovery
Disaster recovery for data storage environments
Special Report: Disaster recovery for UK data storage managers
Virtualisation for data storage and backup environments
AutoVirt steps deeper into file virtualization
What are the key data backup factors to consider with a server virtualisation project?
Data storage resources needed to implement a virtual desktop infrastructure
Podcast: How file virtualization can benefit your storage infrastructure

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary



Enterprise Data Storage for the UK
About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2008 - 2010, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts