HP Renames Appliances To Match Servers

Hewlett-Packard is simplifying its NAS image by renaming its appliances to line up with the servers on which they are based.

The company also plans to introduce technology to expand the role of its NAS appliances, especially when it comes to using them with Microsoft Exchange.

Starting this week, HP's NAS appliances will carry the same model numbers as the ProLiant servers that provide similar base-level functionality, said Ian Duncan, worldwide NAS marketing manager at HP, Palo Alto, Calif.

The hardware for the NAS appliances and HP's ProLiant servers is identical except for the operating system; the appliances use Windows Storage Server 2003 plus utilities.

Carl Wolfston, director of Headlands Associates, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based HP solution provider, said the NAS renaming is a good marketing move and the changes will make it easier for him to carry HP's broader server messaging to customers. "Often, customers buy a box, and they don't really know what they have," Wolfston said. "Now they will."The HP StorageWorks NAS 500s, based on HP's ProLiant MS110 Server, will now be known as the HP ProLiant ML110 Storage Server, Duncan said. The 1500s appliance will be known as the ProLiant DL100 Storage Server, while the 9000s model will become the ProLiant DL580 G2 Storage Server.

In addition, HP expects to launch two new NAS appliances based on existing ProLiant servers, Duncan said. The HP ProLiant ML350 G4 Storage Server, priced starting at $3,850, is based on Xeon processors running at up to 3GHz and has an internal capacity of up to 1.8 Tbytes. The HP ProLiant ML370 G4 Storage Server, priced from $5,300, offers similar specifications, but it comes with 3.4GHz Xeons.

HP this week also plans an enhancement to the iSCSI Feature Pack, introduced in September, to extend iSCSI capabilities to HP's NAS appliances. Starting in November, the pack will offer new disk-to-disk backup, clustering and Exchange capabilities that make it suitable for use as a file server, a print server and an Exchange server. With the enhancement, the Exchange backup process is condensed into four steps from 29 steps, Duncan said.

The enhanced iSCSI Feature Pack should make it easier to cluster NAS appliances in a smaller business, Wolfston said.