Tuesday, 11 September 2007

HP Unveils New Storage Virtualization & Thin Provisioning Offerings

Hewlett Packard (HP) today introduced a high-end disk array for enterprise customers who require constant access to vital data and continued operations in the event of a disaster.

The latest addition to the XP family of enterprise arrays, the HP StorageWorks XP20000 Disk Array apparently brings both heterogeneous storage virtualization and thin provisioning to customers at a lower entry point.

Packaged as a “disaster-tolerant” design, the XP20000, which is available with a portfolio of software to cut costs and eliminate the complexities that come with data management, integrates a fully redundant hardware platform, unique data replication capabilities, and clustering solutions to create a business continuity solution that mitigates business risk by providing constant data availability.

“Enterprises want worry-free and easily manageable data centers that unfailingly run 24/7 despite any disaster, and the XP20000 helps them achieve that goal,” said Jim Wagstaff, vice-president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific and Japan.

“The XP20000 is another example of environmentally responsible technologies from HP that lower overall data center management costs for customers, while reducing business risk and increasing IT efficiencies.”

The HP StorageWorks XP Thin Provisioning Software automatically allocates disk capacity from a virtualized pool of storage only as needed to lower data center costs. It also reduces power consumption and heat generation by decreasing the total number of disks required in typical configurations.

Through virtualization technology, the HP StorageWorks XP External Storage Software and dynamic array partitioning simplifies the consolidation and management of heterogeneous storage environments. Smaller enterprise customers can now consolidate their data center storage and lower costs through more efficient data management.

Additionally, to ensure Oracle compatibility the HP StorageWorks XP passed all Oracle test scenarios with sustained high performance.