HP's New High-End Disk Storage Array And Management Software, Services

HP has announced its latest addition to its StorageWorks line of disk storage systems, the P9500 Disk Array, along with an enhanced HP-UX portfolio of management software for Integrity system servers, HP-UX 11i-v3. In addition, enhancements to HP's Serviceguard Solutions for maintaining high availability of mission-critical systems are offered as part of the tech giant's Converged Infrastructure strategy of selling customers HP technology that works well together.

Central to the storage launch is the new StorageWorks array that, among other features, standardizes on 2.5-inch disk drives, instead of the previous generation 3.5-inch disks. Because the 2.5-inch disks are smaller, more spindles can be built into the storage array and each consumes less power than running 3.5-inch disks. A system with 2.5-inch disks can hold 2,012 disks, versus just 1,152 of the 3.5-inch disks. Each of the smaller disks has less capacity than the larger disks, but overall system capacity is larger. The P9500 system is available now and prices start at $250,000 for a complete system.

HP argues that with Converged Infrastructure, instead of building IT silos for different parts of an organization, it's better to build the data center around software applications. "Ultimately it's applications that power the business and it's what business owners care about," said Katie Curtin-Mestre, director of software planning and marketing for HP Business Critical Systems.

The HP-UX 11i v3 portfolio, combined with the Serviceguard Extensions for Oracle's e-Business Suite, speeds the deployment of Oracle applications on Integrity servers, Curtin-Mestre added. Setting up e-Business applications can be complex, as there are more than 200 of them available, but with the new extensions under Serviceguard, set-up time can be reduced from as many as 30 days to as few as two days. The new software portfolio also includes the HP Serviceguard Toolkit for Oracle Data Guard, an application management tool for Oracle database administrators.

HP, among many other tech companies, last week made joint product announcements with Oracle at its Oracle Open World convention in San Francisco. The HP-Oracle partnership remains strong despite recent tensions between the companies over Oracle's hiring Mark Hurd as co-president soon after Hurd's controversial departure from HP as its CEO in August.