HP Launches New Switch Technology

HostReview.com
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 08:43 AM

HP (www.hp.com) announced new 4-gigabit (4Gb) Fibre Channel switch technology that offers twice the performance at comparable costs of current Fibre Channel offerings to help IT administrators eliminate bottlenecks in storage area networks (SANs).

"HP is the only major vendor to offer a 4Gb embedded switch for blade servers and also offers customers 4Gb SAN infrastructure solutions built on a common system architecture," said Greg Schulz, senior analyst at the Evaluator Group, a Colorado-based consulting firm focused on storage-related issues.

Network slowdowns in data availability occur as server bandwidth is consumed by applications, especially if there are large amounts of data being shared from server to server.

HP is offering new 4Gb products and services to provide customers a cost-effective storage infrastructure that can adapt to changing business needs and the growing demand for additional storage capacity.

HP has already shipped more than 2 million switch ports and was first to market with 4Gb embedded switches for blade servers. As part of its technology roadmap, HP plans to incorporate 4Gb technology into HP StorageWorks arrays and tape systems starting in early 2006.

Backward compatible with existing 2Gb and 1Gb switches, the 4Gb technology helps increase application performance and shorten backup windows by doubling network bandwidth. Customers also can realize immediate benefits as a result of purchasing fewer ports and consuming less power.

"As the need to access the explosive volumes of data continues to grow, the entire industry will move to upgrade their SAN infrastructures to 4Gb technology, and HP is leading the charge," said Kyle Fitze, SAN marketing director, StorageWorks Division, HP.

The switches offer pay-as-you-grow scalability up to 16 ports so customers can start small and expand their storage networks in a non-disruptive manner. They are also easy to deploy, manage and integrate into a wide range of IT environments.