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[IMAGE] [IMAGE] First foray into NAS gateways [IMAGE]
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Hewlett-Packard extended its ProLiant-based NAS product line with the StorageWorks Enterprise File Services (EFS) Clustered Gateway. The new NAS gateway is also built on a ProLiant server, running SuSE 9.0 Linux with clustering capabilities provided by PolyServe Inc.'s File Serving Solution. The gateway can be used as a front end to existing HP XP, EVA and MSA storage arrays to provide file services. The PolyServe software allows scaling up to 16 nodes, which can handle a maximum of 8.2 petabytes of storage. When nodes are added, the process is transparent to users, with the cluster automatically discovering the new node and balancing the workload appropriately. Harry Baeverstad, director of NAS for HP StorageWorks, says support for other vendors' storage systems will be added late this year or in early 2006. The initial offerings in this product line are:
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A single-node configuration with a list price of $30,300.
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A two-node configuration that starts at $74,700.

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Dogged for the last year or so by a shrinking storage market share, a widely held perception that the company had lost its storage focus, high-level executive defections and rumblings within the ranks, Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. picked its annual user conference in Las Vegas last May to roll out a slew of new and enhanced products it hoped would silence critics and allay customer concerns.

But even the big rollout went awry, with reports about the new HP offerings appearing in the computer and business press more than a week before the planned announcements. While the drama of the moment might have been lost, the sheer breadth of the rollouts was enough to salvage the firm's much-needed momentum.

Lacking a single jaw-dropping product introduction as a centerpiece, HP instead opted for quantity, rolling out a half-dozen not-so-major products and services intended to nudge the firm into emerging markets and address users' immediate needs. "It's not the celebrity product; it's really the system solution that HP can bring," says Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager of HP's StorageWorks division. Bolstering the package of new products were announcements of a dozen enhancements to existing hardware and software products.

A bevy of new products
HP executives say the event was the biggest storage product rollout in HP's history. If "big" is a measurement of the number of products introduced or the new storage markets that HP is entering, then the company's boast can be taken at face value. "I think it's great to see the number and breadth of announcements," says Scott Erkonen, managing officer of networking at Premier Bankcard Inc. in Sioux Falls, SD.

"They took two years to rationalize all the Compaq and HP products together and ended up falling a bit behind," notes Nancy Hurley, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), Milford, MA. Now, she adds, HP is filling out its portfolio to demonstrate that it's committed to being a strong player in the storage market.

The key product announcements fall into five storage areas:

• Arrays--new midrange Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) models (see Enhanced EVA line, this page).
• Backup--a virtual tape library (VTL) system and a mid-level tape library (see New backup products).
• NAS--a clustered NAS gateway (see First foray into NAS gateways, this page).
• Wide Area File Services (WAFS)--a WAN accelerator device (see Appliance for remote office access).
• Information lifecycle management (ILM)--services to assist in the preparation and implementation of an ILM process (see ILM help).

The least-surprising, and long anticipated, announcement was the refresh of HP's popular midrange EVA line. Three new models--the EVA4000, EVA6000 and EVA8000--were added to replace the aging EVA3000 and EVA5000 arrays. Users have waited nearly two years for a significant upgrade to the line, and for some it comes just as they're pushing the upper limits of the EVA5000.

"We've got two EVAs that, from a performance and transaction processing base, we don't really need," says Todd Warnock, director of technology services at NetBank Inc., Alpharetta, GA. "But we needed it to get the capacity beyond 35 terabytes." Before the new models were rolled out, the only recourse for users nearing capacity ceilings on their EVA5000s was to buy another system--not an appealing alternative for users who opted for the EVA array based on its modularity and ability to grow.

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Introduced more than four years ago, this is the first major refresh of Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) line in nearly two years. The new EVAs—the EVA4000, EVA6000 and EVA8000—will replace the current, somewhat long-in-the-tooth EVA3000 and EVA5000 models.

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The EVA architecture has undergone some modification: The controllers have been tweaked to improve performance and lift their storage capacities. The high-end EVA8000 tops out at 72TB (with an expansion cabinet), more than twice the EVA5000's 35TB total capacity. All of the new EVAs can support a mix of Fibre Channel (FC) and Fibre-Attached Technology Adapted (FATA) drives.

"They just turned the crank one more time," says Randy Kerns, a senior partner at Greenwood Village, CO-based Evaluator Group Inc., who emphasizes that the refreshes are "minor." But, he adds, customers are likely to embrace the evolutionary nature of the EVA enhancements because implementing the systems will be "a low-risk issue."

HP will stop selling the EVA3000 and EVA5000, but will continue to support them. Users upgrading to one of the new models should be able to use their existing disk enclosures, although the migration might not be so simple, according to Kyle Fitze, director of SAN marketing for HP's StorageWorks division. "It'll involve some planned downtime," he says, adding that users will need to replace their existing EVA controllers and remap all data. Trying to make the upgrade as easy as possible, Fitze says HP will provide tools to help automate some of the process, such as data migration and logical unit number (LUN) mapping. "It will definitely be one that we're going to tackle with [HP] professional services," says Premier Bankcard's Erkonen, describing his firm's expected EVA8000 migration.

At its annual user conference, HP was preaching to the faithful and many attendees have already factored one or more of the new models into their upgrade plans. "Our plan is to move to the new EVA8000," says Warnock. "We have some EVA5000s that are coming off lease this year and our plan is to do some controller consolidation." Erkonen expects to install an EVA8000 to handle OLTP apps, file shares and e-mail. "That's where we'll really get the bang for the buck." he notes.

Fender Musical Instruments Corp. in Scottsdale, AZ, is also looking to upgrade to an EVA8000. "We're rapidly running out of space," says Kevin Pollock, manager of data center and network services at Fender. "We're looking to upgrade now, probably to an 8000."

While the EVA upgrades might play well with HP's existing EVA customers, Steven Berg, vice president and senior analyst at Punk, Ziegel & Company in New York City, isn't impressed with the announcements and thinks the model upgrades will do little to expand HP's user base. "They're probably not taking share from EMC's Clariion or IBM's Engenio [DS4000 series, formerly known as FastT storage] products," says Berg.

For some, the new HP products may be a case of too little, too late. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania has more than 150TB of HP storage in its data centers, but over the next three years they'll replace it with IBM Corp. arrays as part of a $402 million deal the medical center signed with IBM.

"HP and IBM competed for this, and HP eventually bowed out," says Joe Furmanski, technical project director at UPMC. He says HP's sudden exit from the proposal process seemed to coincide with management changes at HP. "HP bowing out of this competition was kind of timely with Carly's [former chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina] leaving," Furmanski says.

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