HP introduced a new family of entry-level disk arrays with enterprise-class features that can help customers more effectively centralise storage to lower costs, increase administrator efficiency and reduce business downtime.
The HP StorageWorks 2000 Modular Smart Array (MSA2000) family is composed of low-cost Fibre Channel and iSCSI disk arrays for highly available, storage area networks (SAN) that is designed for virtualised server environments.
The easy-to-use, enterprise-class systems are designed for small and mid-size businesses, however, enterprises also will find the MSA2000 is an ideal solution for their remote office, departmental, secondary and tertiary storage needs.
The entry-level external storage market was $2.8 billion in 2006, according to analysts, and HP garnered a market-leading 21 per cent market share in this segment in 2007.(1)
The MSA2000 arrays are easily deployed in physical or virtual server environments to deliver an available and automated infrastructure. The modular arrays also support a wide range of application deployments, including VMware virtualisation software.
Both the iSCSI and Fibre Channel MSA2000 arrays complement the HP BladeSystem and feature a built-in management console to set up and configure the storage, without additional hardware and software. This enables HP BladeSystem customers to easily fit the MSA2000 into their current management environment and configure all their blades at once, instead of one blade at a time.
The flexible and modular nature of the HP StorageWorks portfolio eases the addition of file services to the MSA2000 family, using HP ProLiant Storage Servers or an HP StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway.
“Our modular storage arrays are perfect for customers who have a limited IT budget, but need a solution that is quickly scalable for shared storage environments,” said Robin Hensley, vice president of Entry Storage, StorageWorks, HP. “Customers will benefit from consolidating their storage, and can take advantage of features like snap and clone to protect their data and deliver value to their business.”