HP To Take Wraps Off Latest Storage Software Upgrades

The goal of the new technologies is to make it easier for business administrators to control the costs of storage while allowing storage specialists to deploy storage more easily, said Don Langeberg, director of marketing for network storage solutions at HP.

One addition to the HP storage software line, Storage Provisioner, allows for automatic provisioning and configuration of storage to reduce the time needed to bring new storage capacity online, while also reducing the amount of new capacity needed, Langeberg said.

An update to another product, the Continuous Access Storage Appliance (CASA), allows data to be replicated and migrated between arrays from multiple vendors, Langeberg said.

An extension of the SV3000 virtualization appliance, CASA includes features such as asynchronous write ordering to allow high-speed asynchronous data movement, cascading to allow campuswide configurations, new clustering support including HP-UX and failover in AIX environments, and support for NetWare 5.1 and NetWare 6 environments, he said.

An update to a third software product, Storage Media Operations, allows for automatic tracking and managing of data storage media, Langeberg said.

Carl Wolfston, director at Headlands Associates, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based solution provider, said he has yet to see customers automate storage provisioning. However, HP has been doing well in terms of storage virtualization with its SV3000 appliance, Wolfston said. "It's great for disaster recovery and data replication," he said.

All of the new software is available now. A management appliance with Storage Provisioner and up to 2 Tbytes of capacity is priced at about $20,000. A CASA license for up to 20 dual-connected hosts and four arrays is $122,500. An entry-level, one-server license for Storage Media Operations is $8,400.

HP is also expected to announce commercial availability of the next generation of Ultrium tape drives and media. The Ultrium 460 drives can pack 400 Gbytes on to a cartridge at 60 MBps compressed, said Langeberg. The result is a throughput of 216 Gbytes per hour, he said.