HP With New Entry Storage for Channel Selling to SMBs

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP announced storage systems that enable channel partners to offer storage technology at a new level of affordability, thereby accelerating sales in the entry-level storage segment.

Customers in this segment often rely on local IT resellers to recommend, and at times deploy and manage, the storage they need to meet their requirements. Many SMBs lack the financial and IT resources to implement the right storage to provide HA for virtual infrastructure, manage rapid data growth and protect critical business information.

Built on the same HP MSA Storage technology that has been deployed more than 400,000 times worldwide, the new MSA 1040 storage system delivers up to 50% higher performance than its predecessor at a 25% lower starting price.(Based on HP internal comparison to HP P2000 G3 configurations and US list prices, February 2014.)

MSA 1040

This new generation of MSA makes it possible for more SMBs to access the resilient shared storage required for initiatives such as server virtualization. It also is the most affordable dual-controller storage system available worldwide from a major vendor.(based on published US list pricing from Dell, EMC, IBM, HP and NetApp, February 2014.)

Stress-free storage for SMBs
At its annual Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, NV, HP also unveiled the next-generation HP StoreEasy storage family and enhancements to HP StoreOnce Backup systems. These updates give SMBs affordable and scalable ways to store, manage and protect increasing amounts of data without the need for special IT skills.

All of these solutions are available under the HP Simply StoreIT program, which is part of the HP Just Right IT portfolio of products and solutions designed to help partners market, sell, design and deploy solutions to SMBs. These offerings are designed to accelerate the ability of channel partners to address customer challenges and pursue new revenue opportunities.

“Our mid-market and commercial customers need guidance throughout their IT evolution, and Insight now has the resources needed to advise our customers on what type of solution best fits their storage needs,” said Rita Azrak, senior product manager, Insight Canada Inc., an HP channel partner. “With HP’s Simply StoreIT program we have seen a 22% increase in commercial storage sales in Q4FY13 alone.”

Delivering storage value with SAN technology
SMBs with tight IT budgets have often been forced to compromise performance and scalability attributes when purchasing affordable shared storage arrays. These businesses need shared storage to support IT initiatives such as consolidation, virtualization and hosting applications including email, databases and media applications. The MSA 1040 lowers the entry price of MSA family,(Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q4 2013, external disk subsystems, entry storage category, SAN attached (FC protocol), by factory revenue.) utilizing fourth-generation technology, offering customers the ability to:

• Reduce data center footprint and energy costs with the ability to support more VMs on less hardware.
• Protect existing investments and speed storage technology refresh with a data-in-place upgrade feature, easing the upgrade from the MSA P2000 G3 to the MSA 1040 or from the MSA 1040 to the MSA 2040 platform.
• Simplify management with an interface that is intuitive to use for HP ProLiant and BladeSystem server administrators.

With this priced storage system, HP channel partners can grow their total addressable market for entry-level storage from HP by 50% – providing working solutions for well under $10,000.(Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q4 2013, external disk subsystems, entry storage category, SAN attached by units.)

Enhancing the market’s No. 1 NAS platform under $10,000 (Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q3 2013, NAS systems only  – price band 2 and below)
SMB customers often have to choose between low-cost file storage from unproven vendors or expensive and proprietary systems that require excessive administration. Entry NAS solution StoreEasy StorageEasy, gives users better administration control with enhanced file access, security and application performance built on the latest-generation storage OS. Enhancements to the portfolio enable customers to:

• Eliminate the need to navigate multiple tools and interfaces by monitoring capacity utilization, performance and system health from a single dashboard.
• Enhance productivity with an automated setup tool that accelerates network configuration and simplifies installation for faster deployment while preventing errors.
• Improve performance with SMB protocol bandwidth management, and Storage QoS features to load-balance Windows Server with Hyper-V applications.

Reducing risk and lowering TCO with scalable data protection
In the area of backup, recovery and archive (BURA), HP is making it more affordable for customers to protect their data for longer periods. The StoreOnce 4500 backup system now has triple the scalability for the same entry-level price. This enhanced scalability offers midsize customers a cost-efficient solution to reduce risk with enhanced data protection featuring de-duplication. With this change, customers can make a lower initial investment while gaining the option to expand the system to a maximum 124TB of usable capacity, or nearly 2.5PB of backup data (based on 20:1 dedupe ratio. 124TB*20=2.48PB). The upgraded system will now support any mix of 2TB and 4TB drive shelves and a maximum of three shelves.

“SAFE Credit Union needed a reliable storage portfolio that was not only within budget, but that would easily adapt to our rapidly changing business,” said Matthew Rose, technical services manager, SAFE Credit Union. “We turned to HP for simplicity in deployment with HP StoreOnce Backup and as a result, we now have the ability to store and manage our data more efficiently – scaling out when needed while knowing our platform is flexible and dependable.”

Supporting partners and SMBs
As part of HP’s Just Right IT program for SMBs, HP Simply StoreIT is designed to help SMBs choose the right HP storage solutions. A key component of this program is HP ServiceIT, a set of technology, financial, cloud and education support services that enable partners to get their customers up and running, while enhancing performance and providing a proven path to efficient storage consolidation. Once customers have selected the right storage solution, HP and its authorized channel partners can provide end-to-end installation and HP Proactive Care service to ensure customers receive the right level of support for their business application.

Pricing and availability (Estimated U.S. list prices. Actual prices may vary.):

• MSA 1040 is expected to be available in 1GbE iSCSI, 8GB FC and 10GbE iSCSI beginning March 31, with dual-controller configurations starting at $6,500 (€4,893), $7,500 (€5,421) and $8,500 (€6,565), respectively.
• StoreEasy storage is expected to be available on April  7 for a starting price of $4,490 (€2,760).
• StoreOnce 4500 48TB expansion shelf is expected to be available on March 31 for a starting price of $70,000 (€48,800). Existing HP StoreOnce 4500 customers can take advantage of the new scalability with a free firmware and software update.
• Flexible investment solutions from HP Financial Services make it easy for SMBs to acquire the MSA 1040 storage system with payment options as low as $155 a month*.
• HP Installation and Proactive Care service are available worldwide with pricing based on configuration.

* Estimate based on a $6,500 MSA 1040 configuration and applicable for hardware only, for U.S. partners and customers on a 48-month Fair Market Value lease structure, subject to all standard terms listed below. Financing and service offerings available through HP Financial Services company and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively HPFSC) in certain countries limited to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Australia and are subject to credit approval and execution of standard HPFSC documentation. Rates and terms are based on customer’s credit rating, offering types, services and/or equipment type, and options. Not all customers may qualify. Not all services or offers are available in all countries. Other restrictions may apply.