HP releases 1TB storage solution

HP unveiled the StorageWorks "all-in-one" family of storage solutions at its annual Preferred Partner conference, held in Barcelona last week.

Making use of industry standard technology such as SATA (serial ATA), SAS (serial attached SCSI) and RAID, and boasting support backup services, shared folder services and file services, HP believes the "all-in-one" is the first product of its kind for the small and medium enterprise (SME) market.

While based on industry standard technology and thus working in any environment, the tools bundled with the solutions (and the operating system the storage solutions run) are specifically designed for the Microsoft environment and more specifically, Exchange and SQL, HP states.

For SMEs strongly entrenched in the Microsoft world, the new products have strong benefits, HP claims. In fewer than 10 clicks, for example, customers can fully set up shared storage for an exchange mail store, it says.

"In the SME space today, 60% of the customers have not yet deployed networked storage," says Bob Schultz, senior VP and GM, StorageWorks division at HP. "This sector is also predicted by IDC to present a $5.7 billion market opportunity by 2010. So, there is explosive growth taking place in the SME space, but customers are still extremely cost conscious.

"At a price of 4 399 euros for the entry-level 1TB model, however, we believe the cost aspect of the equation is being well addressed."

Yesh Surjoodeen, product manager: StorageWorks division at HP SA, says local end-user pricing on the 1TB model is roughly R40 000 (exclusive of VAT).

"That`s obviously taking into account some margin for the partner," he says.

Surjoodeen says the "all-in-one" range is already locally available, but that stock is only expected to arrive by the end of October.