10 Server And Storage Technologies Taking Center Stage At HPE Discover 2017

HPE Helping To Build The Modern Data Center

Data center infrastructure is front and center at HPE Discover 2017 in Las Vegas as the company opens up on its latest server and storage offerings and some of the software that makes them a leading contender as the center of future IT infrastructures.

The centerpiece of the new offerings is HPE's Gen10, or 10th generation, ProLiant servers which are scheduled to be released this summer, depending on when Intel releases is Purley architecture. The focus on Gen10 will be on hardware-based security.

HPE also introduced a new 3Par all-flash storage family, as well as several SMB and SOHO server and storage offerings. And it used Discover to show the latest prototype its long-awaited "The Machine," a single-memory computer with custom-built architecture built for modern applications.

For a look at what HPE is doing to help re-architect the modern data center, turn the page.

HPE Gen10 Server Platform

The centerpiece of HPE Discover from a product perspective is HPE’s new 10th generation server platform, dubbed Gen10, which will cut across all of HPE’s server lines, including ProLiant DL rack mount, blade servers and the Apollo server line, as well as a variety of other products. It will also be at the center of future versions of HPE's Synergy converged infrastructure offering.

The new Gen10 servers will be built on Intel's Purley platform, which debuts this summer. Because of this, the specifications for Gen10 aren't available, but HPE did discuss some unique value-adds it will offer. These include persistent memory, which combines the performance of DRAM with the persistence of traditional SSDs or spinning disk; support for future memory types including Intel 3X XPoint; Intelligent System Tuning; which lets customers adjust processor performance; and enhanced security via an HPE-designed ASIC.

Significant Enhancements To HPE Synergy Composable Infrastructure

The latest iteration of HPE Synergy, the company's Composable Infrastructure platform which combines compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources into a single offering with a unified management interface, includes several enhancements. The biggest change is the introduction of HPE's New Stack project, which is being developed to let Synergy converged infrastructure become a single managed architecture spanning IT assets from on-premises to the cloud. New Stack, slated to be in general availability by year-end, will provide single-pane-of-glass management and monitoring of a customer's Composable Infrastructure, and allow the deployment of public clouds. It will also provide a platform for line of business managers and developers to collaborate.

HPE is also partnering with Mesosphere to help IT and DevOps people automate deployment and streamline operations of Mesosphere Enterprise DC/OS, and with Cirba to better automate provisioning and provide predictive capacity management with virtualized workloads.

The Machine

HPE is showing off The Machine, or at least the latest prototype of The Machine, a single-memory computer with custom-built architecture built for modern applications. The latest prototype features 160 TBs of shared memory spread across 40 physical nodes and interconnected with a high-performance fabric protocol. It runs an optimized Linux-based operating system running on ThunderX2, Cavium's flagship second generation dual-socket-capable ARMv8-A workload optimized System on a Chip. HPE is also showing new software programming tools designed to take advantage of abundant persistent memory.

HPE said it expects The Machine's architecture can scale to an exabyte-scale single-memory system and, beyond that, to a nearly-limitless 4,096-yottabyte pool of memory.

HPE 3Par StoreServ 9450

HPE used Discover to launch its new 3Par 9000-series of storage offerings aimed at bridging midsize and higher-end storage requirements for customers hitting performance and scale limits, Parks. The first in the new line is the 3Par StoreServ 9450 which provides all-flash performance to scalable and multi-tenant environments. HPE said the 3Par 9450 offers an 80-percent boost in performance over the previous 3Par midrange systems, with close to two million IOPS at less than one millisecond of latency. It scales to up to six petabytes of capacity.

Embracing HPE's Nimble Storage Line

HPE is also celebrating its acquisition last month of Nimble Storage by integrating the line into the HPE price list and offering HPE training and certification. The company is starting that integration with entry-level Nimble Storage models, and plans to do so with the entire line over time as a way to help HPE partners take advantage of Nimble Storage's all-flash and hybrid flash primary and secondary storage offerings.

HPE is also working to integrate Nimble Storage's Infosight analytics platform into the HPE storage line, although there is no date for this to be complete.

StoreOnce CloudBank, RMC Tie HPE Storage To Cloud Data Protection

For customers looking to the cloud for data protection, HPE introduced StoreOnce CloudBank as a way to add low-cost protection via AWS or Azure public clouds or on-premises object storage. HPE said StoreOnce CloudBank, when integrated with 3Par storage, brings the cost of cloud-based storage to about $0.001 per gigabyte per month.

Data protection on the HPE 3Par all-flash storage systems was further enhanced with a new Express Restore feature for the HPE Recovery Manager Central, or RMC, data protection application. With Express Restore, RMC can provide up to 15 times faster data recovery from on-premises or off-premises StoreOnce repositories, HPE said. RMC also can now be integrated with Veeam Explorer as well, he said.

Expanding The MSA Line

HPE used Discover to unveil the fifth generation of its HPE MSA entry-level SAN storage family, starting with the HPE MSA 2050 and MSA 2052. The company claims the new models offer double the performance than the previous generation.

The HPE MSA 2052 hybrid flash storage array features 1.6 TBs of SSD capacity, and includes automated tiering, while the HPE MSA 2050 supports flash storage media.

ProLiant DL20 Short-depth Rack Server

The new ProLiant DL20 fits a standard rack, but has a depth of only 15 inches, which HPE said makes it the shortest-depth rack-mount server available. The DL20 is based on the Intel Core i3, Pentium, or Xeon processor with two or four cores, and comes with up to 64GBs of memory, integrated graphics or an optional NVidia GPU, and room for four small form factor or two large form factor drives.

Customers and partners can order the DL20 bundled with the ClearOS Linux operating system from Salt Lake City-based ClearCenter. HPE will provide ClearOS and configure it at the factory at no charge.

ProLiant ML30 Tower Server

The ML30 tower server is targeted at SMB customers. It is based on the Intel Core i3, Pentium, or Xeon processor with two or four cores, and comes with up to 64GBs of memory, integrated graphics or an optional NVidia GPU, and room for eight small form factor or four large form factor drives.

As with the DL20 rack-mount server, the ML30 can be bundled with the ClearOS Linux operating system from Salt Lake City-based ClearCenter. HPE will provide ClearOS and configure it at the factory at no charge.

HPE MicroServers Return To The Market

For SOHO customers, HPE is reintroducing its MicroServer line of servers. The new models, based on HPE's new Gen10 server platform and available with AMD dual-core Opteron processors, fit in a 9-inch by 9.25-inch by 10-inch chassis with integrated graphics that supports up to two 4K displays or an optional Radeon GPU that supports up to five 4K displays. They include a Gigabit Ethernet port and room for four SATA hard drives or SSDs.

Pricing for the MicroServer starts at $399 or less.

HPE previously offered a Gen8-based MicroServer, but did not offer one based on its Gen9 architecture.