HP taps Microsoft software for SMB storage wares

IDG News Service - Hewlett-Packard Co. is leveraging Microsoft Corp. software in a new portfolio of storage products aimed at taking on EMC Corp. in the small-to-midsize business market and encouraging those companies still using direct-attached storage to move to network-attached storage (NAS).

HP's StorageWorks All-in-One (AiO) Storage Systems comes in two models for a range of capacity needs and can be installed in less than 10 clicks of a mouse, the company said. The systems provide storage, sharing, management, backup and protection for small and midsize organizations' application and file data.

While the device is relatively inexpensive -- it starts at $5,000 for 1TB -- the primary issue small and midsize business users have with storage networks is that they're too complex, said Debbie Young, head of worldwide marketing for SMB solutions at HP. "Even if you have it down to a price point they can afford, they don't have time to become storage experts," she said.

The device provides NAS and Internet SCSI connections in two models: the AiO400, with 4 250GB drives for a total of 1TB, and the AiO600, with six drives of either 250GB or 500GB, for up to 3TB of storage. The models use Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives; there is also a Serial Attached SCSI drive version of the AiO600 with a total of 876GB of storage. The arrays support RAID levels of 0, 1 and 5.

St. John's Episcopal School in Tampa, Fla., has been using the AiO400 device for about a month and a half, said Charles Love, who is director of IT at the school via Big Sur Technologies Inc., a Tampa-based outsourcer. It has let Love consolidate storage in one area of a building rather than having direct-attached storage throughout three server rooms. The device has also reduced the amount of space and power required because he will be able to replace two 18-in. tall servers with one device the height of a pizza box, he said.

Because the school is near the water and is subject to power failures, Love said he is considering getting another unit and mirroring them. Love added that he likes that he can add more storage with an HP Modular Smart Array if the school runs out of space, he said.

The systems are based on Microsoft's Windows Storage Server and are specifically designed for Microsoft environments, HP said. The new AiO systems include point-and-click tools for working with both Microsoft Exchange messaging server and the SQL Server database.

HP first announced that it was planning networked storages for small and midsize businesses in July (see "HP to offer networked storage for SMBs"), saying it wanted to take on EMC in that market as well as capitalize on what Framingham, Mass.-based analyst firm IDC predicts will be a $5.7 billion market opportunity by 2010. HP said it designed the new offerings to be simple so small and midsize businesses can install and maintain them without a full-time IT department.

The HP StorageWorks AiO400 has four drive bays with SATA ports and capacity of 1TB of networked storage for $5,000. For businesses that have bigger storage needs, the HP StorageWorks AiO600 has six drive bays in a rack or tower and can provide 1.5TB of SATA capacity for $6,700; 3TB of SATA capacity for $9,000 or 876GB of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) capacity for $9,250. SAS drives are typically more reliable and higher performing than SATA drives, and so storage devices with these drives cost more.

HP plans to sell the AiO systems mainly through its channel partners, which the company said number more than 145,000 worldwide.