HP Aims Business Continuity At SMBs

HP unveiled a program today aimed at helping small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) safeguard their data from security and disaster threats.

The HP Business Protection portfolio offers business continuity for SMBs through security, data protection and availability features.

To stress the importance of continuity and disaster preparedness, HP cited a recent University of Texas study that found that 43 percent of companies that suffered catastrophic data loss due to disaster never reopened, and 51 percent closed within two years.

“After facing a security breach, IT threat or disaster, the survival of a smaller business often depends on how quickly it can recover,” stated Kevin Gilroy, HP’s senior vice president and general manager of small and medium business.

The security approach is aimed at threats such as viruses, spyware, spam, intrusion and outdated security protections. The data protection measures provide tools to capture, distribute and protect information automatically and back up and recover quickly. The availability services are aimed at keeping business systems running in event of disasters such as power outages, floods, mudslides, hurricanes and tornados.

“HP has thought this through completely, considering all the threats that could bring down a business and addressing data protection, IT security and availability,” said Chris Liebert, senior analyst for small and medium business strategies at the Yankee Group.

Among the new services and products are the HP Smart Desktop Management Service for data protection and security of networked PCs; an online SMB Security Solution Center for small business owners and partners to understand and choose security features to protect their businesses; and affordable, easy-to-use storage and server solutions for data protection and availability.

The new HP Smart Desktop Management Service offers off-site data protection, security and support of individual client systems for an introductory price of less than $20 per month per seat. The service delivers remote data backup and restore capabilities with enhanced security features. Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/clientprotection.

HP’s data protection offerings are aimed not only at business continuity, but also at complying with laws and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Europe’s Data Protection Act and Japan’s HPB 517.

The newest addition to the lineup is the HP StorageWorks Ultrium 448 Tape Drive. Starting at $2,199, the entry-level tape drive provides quick recovery through HP’s “One-Button Disaster Recovery” feature. Designed for use with entry-level and midrange HP ProLiant servers, the Ultrium 448 tape drive is a half-height LTO Ultrium solution with 400GB of compressed (2:1) capacity per data cartridge and able to back up at 172.8 GB/hour.

Other HP data protection offerings include backup and storage solutions such as HP OpenView Storage Mirroring Software, which performs real-time data replication between servers on a LAN to provide fail-over capabilities and avoid data loss. Also included in the portfolio are HP digital imaging solutions that convert paper-based documents into digital information that can be easily accessed, stored and managed.

The updated HP ProLiant DL380 Packaged Cluster enables two servers to back each other up, keeping data available without intervention even during hardware and software failure or periods of planned server maintenance. Consisting of two server nodes and shared storage, the solution starts at $10,449.

The HP Integrated Lights-Out Advantage Pack (iLO) is an optional feature on most HP ProLiant servers that provides business-critical availability of data remotely starting at $349 per server. It provides full remote access and management of server power, system console and system event logs regardless of the state of operation of the server.

More information about the HP Business Protection solutions and services for SMBs is available at www.hp.com/go/BusinessProtection.

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