HP has introduced two direct-attached storage enclosures based on serial-attached SCSI technology to extend the data performance, flexibility and reliability of its entry-level Modular Smart Array family.

Entry-level storage systems priced below $15,000 make up the fastest growing segment in the storage market, and HP recently shipped its 100,000th MSA unit – more entry-level disk arrays than any other vendor.

The new HP StorageWorks MSA60 and HP StorageWorks MSA70 join a family of cost-effective, reliable and easy-to-manage direct-attached storage and storage-area networking solutions.

The two systems offer flexible, tiered storage to customers by supporting SAS and serial ATA (SATA) drives in the same enclosure. They also offer advanced data protection with a range of fail-safe configurations, including RAID 6 with Advanced Data Guarding to prevent downtime or data loss during upgrades or in the event of drive failure.

The HP StorageWorks MSA60 is a 2U disk drive enclosure designed to support 3.5-inch universal SAS or SATA drives for a maximum capacity of up to 3.6 terabytes (TB) with 12 SAS drives or 9 TB with 12 SATA drives. It supports direct attach to HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers and the cascading of enclosures in a 1+3 configuration, which allows customers to easily increase capacity as their storage needs grow.

The HP StorageWorks MSA70 is a 2U disk drive storage enclosure supporting 2.5-inch SAS or SATA small form-factor drives for a maximum capacity of up to 3.6 TB with 25 SAS drives or 1.5 TB with 25 SATA drives. It supports direct attach to HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers and the cascading of enclosures in a 1+1 configuration.

The HP StorageWorks MSA60 and MSA70 represent another step forward for HP Adaptive Infrastructure, which enables customers to lower costs as well as increase speed, reliability and performance as they look to build next generation data centres.