LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Mar 24, 2014) - HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced new storage systems that enable channel partners to offer industry-leading storage technology at a new level of affordability, thereby accelerating sales in the entry-level storage segment.

Customers in this segment often rely on local IT resellers to recommend, and at times deploy and manage, the storage they need to meet their requirements. Many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) lack the financial and IT resources to implement the right storage to provide high availability for virtual infrastructure, manage rapid data growth and protect critical business information.

Built on the same proven HP MSA Storage technology that has been deployed more than 400,000 times worldwide, the new HP MSA 1040 Storage system delivers up to 50 percent higher performance than its predecessor at a 25 percent lower starting price.(1) This new generation of MSA makes it possible for more SMBs to access the resilient shared storage required for initiatives such as server virtualization. It also is the most affordable dual-controller storage system available worldwide from a major vendor.(2)

Offering stress-free storage for SMBs
 At its annual Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, HP also unveiled the next-generation HP StoreEasy Storage family and enhancements to HP StoreOnce Backup systems. These updates give SMBs affordable and scalable ways to store, manage and protect increasing amounts of data without the need for special IT skills.

All of these solutions are available under the HP Simply StoreIT program, which is part of the HP Just Right IT comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions designed to help partners market, sell, design and deploy solutions to SMBs. These offerings are designed to accelerate the ability of HP channel partners to address customer challenges and pursue new revenue opportunities.

"Our mid-market and commercial customers need guidance throughout their IT evolution, and Insight now has the resources needed to advise our customers on what type of solution best fits their storage needs," said Rita Azrak, senior product manager, Insight Canada -- an HP channel partner. "With HP's Simply StoreIT program we have seen a 22 percent increase in commercial storage sales in Q4FY13 alone."

Delivering unmatched storage value with industry-leading SAN technology
 SMBs with extremely tight IT budgets have often been forced to compromise performance and scalability attributes when purchasing affordable shared storage arrays. These businesses need shared storage to support IT initiatives such as consolidation, virtualization and hosting applications including email, databases and media applications. The new HP MSA 1040 Storage system lowers the entry price of HP's market-leading MSA family,(3) utilizing fourth-generation technology, offering customers the ability to:

  • Reduce data center footprint and energy costs with the ability to support more virtual machines on less hardware.
  • Protect existing investments and speed storage technology refresh with a unique data-in-place upgrade feature, easing the upgrade from the HP MSA P2000 G3 to the HP MSA 1040 or from the HP MSA 1040 to the flagship HP MSA 2040 platform.
  • Simplify management with an easy interface that is intuitive to use for HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem server administrators.

With this aggressively priced storage system, HP channel partners can grow their total addressable market for entry-level storage from HP by 50 percent -- providing working solutions for well under $10,000.(4)

Enhancing the market's No. 1 NAS platform under $10,000(5)
SMB customers often have to choose between low-cost file storage from unproven vendors or expensive and proprietary systems that require excessive administration. HP's market-leading entry NAS solution, HP StoreEasy Storage, gives users better administration control with enhanced file access, security and application performance built on the latest-generation storage operating system. Enhancements to the portfolio enable customers to:

  • Eliminate the need to navigate multiple tools and interfaces by monitoring capacity utilization, performance and system health from a single dashboard.
  • Enhance productivity with an automated setup tool that accelerates network configuration and simplifies installation for faster deployment while preventing errors.
  • Improve performance with SMB protocol bandwidth management, and Storage Quality of Service features to load-balance Windows Server with Hyper-V applications.

Reducing risk and lowering TCO with scalable data protection
 In the area of backup, recovery and archive (BURA), HP is making it more affordable for customers to protect their data for longer periods. The HP StoreOnce 4500 Backup system now has triple the scalability for the same entry-level price. This enhanced scalability offers midsize customers a cost-efficient solution to reduce risk with enhanced data protection featuring high-performance deduplication.(6) With this change, customers can make a lower initial investment while gaining the option to expand the system to a maximum 124 TB of usable capacity, or nearly 2.5 petabytes of backup data.(7) The upgraded system will now support any mix of 2TB and 4TB drive shelves and a maximum of three shelves.

"SAFE Credit Union needed a reliable storage portfolio that was not only within budget, but that would easily adapt to our rapidly changing business," said Matthew Rose, technical services manager, SAFE Credit Union. "We turned to HP for simplicity in deployment with HP StoreOnce Backup and as a result, we now have the ability to store and manage our data more efficiently -- scaling out when needed while knowing our platform is flexible and dependable."

Supporting partners and SMBs
 As part of HP's Just Right IT program for SMBs, HP Simply StoreIT is designed to help SMBs quickly choose the right HP Storage solutions for their business. A key component of this program is HP ServiceIT, a comprehensive set of technology, financial, cloud and education support services that enable partners to quickly get their customers up and running, while enhancing performance and providing a proven path to efficient storage consolidation. Once customers have selected the right storage solution, HP and its authorized channel partners can provide end-to-end installation and HP Proactive Care service to ensure customers receive the right level of support for their business application.

Pricing and availability(8)

  • HP MSA 1040 is expected to be available in 1 GbE iSCSI, 8 Gb Fibre Channel and 10 GbE iSCSI beginning March 31, with dual-controller configurations starting at $6,500, $7,500 and $8,500, respectively.
  • New HP StoreEasy Storage is expected to be available on April 7 for a starting price of $4,490.
  • The HP StoreOnce 4500 48TB expansion shelf is expected to be available on March 31 for a starting price of $70,000. Existing HP StoreOnce 4500 customers can take advantage of the new scalability with a free firmware and software update.
  • Flexible investment solutions from HP Financial Services make it easy for SMBs to acquire the new HP MSA 1040 Storage system with payment options as low as $155 a month.(9)
  • HP Installation and Proactive Care service are available worldwide. Pricing based on configuration.

HP's premier America's client event, HP Discover, takes place June 10-12 in Las Vegas.

About HP
 HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. With the broadest technology portfolio spanning printing, personal systems, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP delivers solutions for customers' most complex challenges in every region of the world. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) Based on HP internal comparison to HP P2000 G3 configurations and US list prices, February 2014.
(2) Based on published US List pricing from Dell, EMC, IBM, HP and Network Appliance, February 2014.
(3) Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q4 2013, external disk subsystems, entry storage category, SAN attached (FC protocol), by Factory Revenue.
(4) Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q4 2013, external disk subsystems, entry storage category, SAN attached by Units.
(5) Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q3 2013, NAS systems only (price band 2 and below).
(6) Based on U.S. list pricing for StoreOnce 4500 Backup.
(7) Based on 20:1 dedupe ratio. 124 TB * 20 = 2.48PB.
(8) Estimated U.S. list prices. Actual prices may vary.
(9) Estimate based on a $6,500 HP MSA 1040 configuration and applicable for hardware only, for U.S. partners and customers on a 48-month Fair Market Value lease structure, subject to all standard terms listed below. Financing and service offerings available through Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively HPFSC) in certain countries limited to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Australia and are subject to credit approval and execution of standard HPFSC documentation. Rates and terms are based on customer's credit rating, offering types, services and/or equipment type, and options. Not all customers may qualify. Not all services or offers are available in all countries. Other restrictions may apply. HPFSC reserves the right to change or cancel this program at any time without notice.

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