HP Advances Scalable Cloud Computing with Integration of 3PAR Utility Storage

HP today announced the integration of 3PAR Utility Storage across the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio to simplify scalable cloud computing, and introduced new storage solutions for virtualization and data deduplication.This integration enables clients to optimize cloud delivery with features like automated storage tiering to improve performance, and thin storage offerings to eliminate over-provisioning.The combination also helps clients seeking to consolidate storage hardware and respond to explosive data growth to address both of these challenges with converged block-and-file storage on a single storage array. HP also has simplified data management with solutions built on converged storage, server and networking platforms to provide clients with unified management and a lower total cost of ownership.

“Our clients tell us their journey to the cloud will be one of the most critical transitions for them this decade,” said Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, StorageWorks, HP India. “HP 3PAR Utility Storage meets their demand for a new storage architecture specifically designed for IT as a Service. The integration of 3PAR with Converged Infrastructure is ahead of schedule and HP is poised to take clients to levels of agility and efficiency they’ve never experienced before.”

Delivering utility-based storage resources for the cloud

Growing adoption of both public and private clouds has forced IT organizations and service providers to rethink their infrastructure design. Achieving the agility and performance demanded by cloud services requires the seamless integration of computing, storage and networking, as well as centralized management.

To automate and simplify the provisioning of multitenant storage for the cloud, HP 3PAR Utility Storage can now be fully managed as part of HP CloudSystem, the most complete, integrated system to build and deliver services across private, public and hybrid cloud environments. The combination of 3PAR with HP CloudSystem enables clients to reduce cloud application deployment time from days to minutes,⁽¹⁾ improve operational efficiency of storage management tenfold and cut storage costs by up to 50 percent.⁽²⁾

To provide clients a secure, multitenant block-and-file storage solution for both structured and unstructured data in the cloud, HP has qualified the HP X9300 Network Storage Gateway, built on IBRIX technology, for use with HP 3PAR Storage Systems. Combining the thin-storage capabilities of 3PAR Utility Storage with the tiering and data-migration capabilities of the X9300 Network Storage System can reduce capacity requirements by 50 percent.⁽³⁾

Converging storage, servers and networking for HP BladeSystem

To maximize companies’ return on investment in virtual servers and desktop PCs, HP has introduced the HP P4800 G2 SAN. Built inside an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, the P4800 eliminates the need for external storage networking, which reduces networking costs by up to 65 percent.⁽⁴⁾ The use of common management across server, storage and networking results in a 40 percent increase in productivity.⁽⁵⁾ The new HP P4800 G2 SAN runs SAN/IQ 9.0 software with enhanced support for VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI). This accelerates VMware functions such as cloning by up to 95 percent while cutting the load on VMware ESX servers by 94 percent, allowing clients to increase the density of virtual machines per storage unit by six times.⁽⁶⁾

Improving the efficiency of data protection

The rapid growth of digital data is driving the need for businesses to more efficiently manage information. Featuring StoreOnce deduplication technology developed in HP Labs, the company’s central research facility, the HP D2D4324 Backup System enables clients to back up as much as 1.4 petabytes of data with only 96 terabytes of raw disk capacity – reducing to the cost of storage for disk-based backup by 95 percent.⁽⁷⁾

Converging infrastructure and applications to speed deployment

Massive message volume, larger attachments and multimedia files impact an IT organization’s ability to provide messaging services to end-users. HP announced the immediate availability of the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, which integrates servers, storage, operating system software and Exchange 2010 configuration wizards into a single, converged solution. This enables IT to speed deployment by 75 percent and support users with larger mailboxes at a lower cost per user.⁽⁸⁾

(1)    Comparative calculation of setup and provisioning process for HP 3PAR storage vs. non HP storage with BladeSystem Matrix as well as experiences of HP clients and HP engineering.

(2)    Based on documented experiences and business results of HP 3PAR Utility Storage in client deployments.

(3)    Capacity savings based on documented experiences and business results of HP storage in client deployments.

(4)    List price comparison of HP P4800 vs. NetApp FAS 3140 and EMC CX4-120, October 2010; includes dedicated SAN infrastructure.

(5)    “Gaining Business Value and RO I with HP Insight Control Management Software,” IDC, September 2010.

(6)    Internal HP comparison of time and performance for an HP P4000 with and without VAAI integration of cloning virtual machines and creating new vDisks.

(7)    Capacity savings based on an average deduplication ration of 20:1.

(8)    “Exchange 2010 Planning and Deployment Analysis,” The Tolly Group, February 2011.

(9)    Estimated U.S. street prices. For E5000, estimated prices in Asia Pacific and Japan in U.S. dollars. Actual prices may vary