HP brings virtual array to mid-sized market

HP has released a new virtual storage disk array for mid-sized businesses, the company announced today.

The HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400) will let medium-sized companies use a storage area network (SAN) without investing as much money - or employees - into the system.

The firm said the EVA4400 was as much as 20 per cent cheaper than other models, but still offered high availability as well as enterprise-level features such as provisioning software and dual-redundant hardware which supports replication software and ensures uptime.

Steve Watson, StorageWorks division programme manager, said the system was capable of supporting 96TB of storage and 4GB fibre connections. "It's an enterprise-class product, but changes in cost required make it a very cost effective solution," he said. "EVA is something [smaller companies] would aspire to, the 4400 is hopefully filling that gap."

HP said third party testing has shown the EVA system helps cut management time by as much as three-quarters when compared with competitors' arrays. Using virtualisation will further reduce costs and simplify consolidation, the firm said.

Rick Steffens, vice president and general manager, SAN StorageWorks, said: "Other SAN environments typically create significant management overhead, but the powerfully simple EVA4400 is the better solution for midsize businesses since it is easier to configure and automates storage provisioning to improve capacity utilization."

The EVA4400 is available immediately, starting at a US list price of $15,000 (£7,500).

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