The company will also this month ship storage blades fitted with up to 1TB of disk capacity each, and designed to fit in the same rack as its C-Class server-blades.
Until now HP’s VTL – OEM’ed from start-up Sepaton Inc – has topped out at a maximum 70TB capacity. This month however HP will ship a 500TB system that will also be powered by Sepaton software, but will comprise a gateway appliance fronting SAN-attached EVA disk capacity.
While the gateway could be attached to other arrays, HP has certified it for attachment to the EVA, and this is part of a plan centered on that devices.
Our plan is to build an eco-system around the EVA, said HP’s chief technologist Ashok Ashutosh.
Featuring the ability to virtualize its own disk capacity, the EVA or Enterprise Virtual Array – was developed in-house by HP and was launched around four years ago. As a mid-range to high-end box, it occupies one of the fastest growing market sectors, Ashutosh said. It’s the sweet spot bands 3, 4, and 5, he said.
Ashutosh said that the focus on the EVA does not mean that the device will eventually replace HP’s mid-range MSA arrays. The MSA occupies a space further down-market, he said.
According to HP, the launch of disk storage blades is is enough to create a data center in a box. Ashutosh said that the storage blades will link to the server blades by the virtual switch incorporated into the backplane of its server racks, allowing any server blade to link to any storage blade.
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The SP40C storage blades will ship with sockets for up to six 146GB 2.5in SAS drives, with an option for 160GB SATA drives appearing before year-end. They will carry a list price of $1,599 for a card with sockets but no drives.
HP said that it was aiming at enterprises and mid-sized companies not operating storage networks, which would use the server-and-storage racks for applications such as file and print, email, video streaming or small databases.
