HP Slips Out De-Dupe Under the Radar

Hewlett-Packard's StorageWorks marketing crew is scampering to control a de-duplication announcement that's already hit the streets.

Various online sources, including at least one of HP's own Websites, are touting new HP StorageWorks disk-based backup systems and enhanced VTLs equipped for the first time with de-duplication technology.

HP says its new products increase disk utilization by a factor of 50 while undercutting rival Data Domain's pricing by nearly half. The wares also were demonstrated at an HP confab in Las Vegas this week.

Citing resistance to "cookie cutter" de-duplication, HP is offering two versions of de-dupe technology, one for SMBs, and one for enterprises. The SMB version is taking the form of additions to the HP StorageWorks D2D Backup Systems (D2D) appliance series.

Two new D2D models, the 1U D2D2500 and the 2U D2D4000, feature in-line "dynamic de-duplication" that HP claims will cut disk space requirements for backup by a 50:1 ratio, while costing 45 percent less than comparable Data Domain boxes. (Data Domain, contacted for comment, had not responded at press time.)Each D2D2500 system offers raw capacity of 3 Tbytes via 750-Gbyte SATA drives. It features two 1-Gbit/s iSCSI connections and can also support 100Base-T. The D2D4000 can back up 16 servers with a raw capacity between 4.5 Tbytes and 9 Tbytes. It offers two iSCSI ports as well as two Fibre Channel ports for a SAN link. Both models are currently shipping, HP says, and prices start at about $6,500.

HP's enterprise de-dupe approach -- "acclerated de-duplication," consists of a licenseable enhancement to two models of HP's Virtual Library Systems (VLLSs), the VLS6000 and VLS9000. The post-processing de-duplication comes from Sepaton's DeltaStor technology, through an OEM deal that was initiated in 2005.

The VLS option will be based on physical capacity, HP says, and will be available in July. The two models of VLS that support de-duplication, the VLS9000 and VLS6000, support 600 Tbytes or 105.6 Tbytes of usable compressed capacity, respectively. Each sports two 4-Gbit/s FC ports on both host and storage sides, and the VLS9000 can be equipped with four 4-Gbit/s FC ports on the storage side.

Neither the D2D nor the VLS de-duplication products support remote replication, although that is set to take place later this year, according to HP.

As a last element of the phantom "non-announcement," HP also is offering SMBs new models of its HP StorageWorks RDX Removable Disk Backup System, the RDX 160 and RDX 320, available now for about $300.Stay tuned for more on this news as it unfolds.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.