HP Expands Storage Portfolio with New Data Protection and Archiving Offerings

HostReview.com
Tuesday, September 6, 2005; 02:47 PM

Today at Storage Networking World Europe, HP introduced new products and services for data protection and archiving - two critical components in managing information throughout its lifecycle.

Unlike competitors such as EMC and Network Appliance that can only offer point solutions in these areas, HP offers the industry's most extensive, integrated portfolio of hardware, software and services to meet customers' needs and help them move and protect their information in an efficient, cost-effective way.

"HP has been a sleeping giant for a while but quietly they have been assembling ingredients for some powerful solutions in the data protection and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) space," said Arun Taneja, president and consulting analyst, The Taneja Group.

In the area of data protection, HP introduced new HP ProLiant servers that allow backup at fixed intervals, protecting critical data at all times and reducing the risk of file data loss and business downtime by 96 percent.

The company also extended the HP Virtual Library System to accelerate backup and recovery and introduced HP Electronic Vaulting Services to provide customers with secure, remote storage and retrieval of the information vital to their businesses.
Highlighting the new archiving offerings, the HP StorageWorks File Migration Agent is a flexible storage software solution designed to automate and simplify the management of enterprise Windows® file server environments.

"As data management needs grow unabated, HP is helping customers lower IT costs and, most importantly, put their information to work," said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, HP. "With today's new and enhanced storage offerings, our momentum-building efforts are paying off."

Human error, software glitches, power failures and intrusions such as worms and viruses have turned data protection into a complex process. New HP ProLiant DL 100 G2 and HP ProLiant DL 380 G4 Data Protection Storage Servers (DPSSs) help eliminate complexity for customers with one-click data protection that is easier to use and deploy than competitive offerings.

Fully configured and optimized out of the box for disk-based protection of Windows file server environments, DPSSs provide near continuous data protection for Windows file servers, coupled with simple end-user file recovery.

Extending the capacity and performance of the HP 6000 Virtual Library System family, the new HP StorageWorks 6840 Virtual Library System (VLS) accelerates backup and recovery of slow servers in storage area network environments and integrates seamlessly into existing backup applications and processes.

The HP VLS improves performance and reliability of the data protection process with backup and recovery that is up to 10 times faster than existing tape solutions.
The new HP Electronic Vaulting Services provide highly secure, scalable, automated remote backup, enabling companies to restore vital business data from anywhere across an enterprise, at any time - even after a disaster.

The services give customers off-site data protection and retention, multiple backup file versions, and the ability to consolidate remote locations to a single data repository.

HP's new archiving solutions help customers take control of information through every stage of its lifecycle to maximize business advantage.

The HP StorageWorks File Migration Agent (FMA) reduces online storage requirements by providing flexible migration and archiving and it helps create a multi-tiered framework necessary for a comprehensive ILM strategy.

The HP StorageWorks Reference Information Manager (RIM) for Database Archiving is an active archiving solution that dramatically reduces the cost of data storage and boosts application performance. HP RIM for Database Archiving automates data retention policies and greatly streamlines management of large, complex databases used in business.

Because less data is maintained in the production data base, query response time is improved, operating costs are lower, and management is more efficient and cost effective.