Hoping to bring more companies onboard its ENSAextended bandwagon, Hewlett-Packard Friday introduced its HP StorageWorks (Enterprise Virtual Array) EVA Model 2C2D.
ENSAextended is the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer and printer maker’s play to help customers anticipate and adapt to changing business climates with the infrastructure they purchase.
The new entry-level box allows for utility-like, grow-as-you-go storage. HP said customers could start with as few as eight drives and build up to as many as 240 drives.
The 2C2D runs on HP-UX and the company offers support with HP MC/Serviceguard clustering and SecurePath high-availability software. HP says new support for Linux and Netware is available but limited to a single HBA connection.
HP said the system’s virtual architecture allows for upgrades without interruptions as data is automatically load-balanced across increasingly larger physical pools of disk drives.
The new EVA sports one M3220 3U controller assembly with two HSV110 controllers, two M5214 3U Dual-redundant FC Loop 14 bay disk enclosures, 41U Graphite Storage Cabinet. The system can be factory configured up to a five drive enclosure configuration with an option for FC loop switches. HP says the 2C2D can be field upgraded up to a 2C12D configuration with the addition of drive enclosures and FC loop switches.
The systems are available now. A fully populated 2-terabyte configuration for the EVA Model 2C2D is priced at $181,678. HP said it decided to offer an entry-level EVA due to growing customer demand.
“HP continues to set the pace for the storage industry and, in the modular market, customers are choosing our EVA,” said HP Network Storage Solutions senior vice president and general manager Howard Elias. “Customers instantly recognize the benefits of our virtualized architecture, and the EVA’s momentum is a testament to the return on information technology customers can achieve with an adaptive storage infrastructure.”
HP says its EVAs complement its current Modular Array (MA) family, MA8000 / EMA12000 / EMA16000 StorageWorks solutions and can co-exist in the same Fibre Channel SAN while providing 2 Gb/sec end-to-end Fibre Channel technology in 2 Gb/s Open Fibre Channel SAN networks.
The larger Enterprise products are available in several pre-defined configurations in 42U opal cabinets and 41U graphite cabinets.
Networked storage is part of HP’s Utility Data Center strategy, which competes with IBM’s new strategy of “Computing On Demand” and Sun Microsystems’
N1 architecture platform.
