Hewlett-Packard will launch a family of networked storage products in September to compete with EMC for small and medium-sized customers.
The products will simplify the process of migrating data from application servers to shared network storage, says Debbie Young, worldwide marketing manager for HP’s StorageWorks division.
HP will price the products beginning at US$5,000 (NZ$8,000), for 1TB of capacity and ranging up to US$10,000, coming in below its current low-end storage tool, the modular smart array (MSA).
HP intends to compete against products like StoreVault from Network Appliance, SAN Express from QLogic and Snap Server from Adaptec, as well as EMC’s SME products.
Small business users typically hold their data on three to 14 servers, adding extra servers as they grow, Young says.
In market research, HP found that 60-70% of these users had continued to use this “direct attached storage” technique because its simplicity allows them to maintain their data without a full-time IT department and it is cheap.
To reach these users, HP’s new products will be able to host client applications, email running on Exchange or Lotus, and ERP and CRM databases — all without requiring customers to install a fibre channel infrastructure.
The products will protect data by duplicating it in snapshots stored on the same box or by creating tape backups on an attached device. In an effort to keep prices low, the products will not include data encryption.