HPE Extends All-Flash Datacenter Capabilities With Density and Data Services

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced storage solutions to help customers unlock the value of the all-flash datacenter.

Updates to the 3PAR StoreServ flash portfolio include an capacity-dense all-flash system,⁽¹⁾ persistent storage for containers, unified storage enhancements, and flash-integrated data protection.

Data is at the heart of digital disruption; the ability to accelerate how data is stored, analyzed and protected can be an advantage. This is why customers are moving to flash at record speeds and exploring software-defined storage options.

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Company’s consistent strategy has been to simplify storage with systems optimized for all-flash, and software-defined storage deployed as a data fabric across form factors. Response has been positive, with the firm being the only major vendor to gain share in each of the last two years. ⁽²⁾ In fact, in the most recent quarter the company was the market share leader in total storage while both Dell and EMC continued to decline.⁽³⁾ The solutions announced expand company’s lead in the all-flash datacenter and assure customers a clear path to what’s next.

“The era of the storage-only vendor is over and has been replaced by the era of the best-integrated IT stack,” said Manish Goel, SVP and GM, storage, HPE. “Underpinned by flash and software-defined storage, HPE has the unique infrastructure and software innovation required to power hybrid IT across any form factor and consumption model.“

3PAR StoreServ 8000 storage

Enabling 16x boost in all-flash density to shrink datacenter costs
All-flash storage has enabled business transformation for a large number of customers and firm’s focus on speed, affordability and enterprise data services have led to rapid growth for the 3PAR family of all-flash arrays.

To extend this trajectory, the company announced support for 7.68 and 15.36 TB 3D NAND SSDs across the 3PAR StoreServ family. With these drives, StoreServ is a dense and scalable all-flash array now supporting up to 24PB of usable SSD capacity in a single system ⁽⁴⁾ and 12x better density than EMC all-flash systems. ⁽⁵⁾ Over the last 24 months, 3PAR has delivered 16x flash density improvements and 40% lower dollar per usable gigabyte.⁽⁶⁾ New and existing customers can choose from different SSD drive types and sizes to optimize deployment flexibility.

Support for these large capacity SSDs is enabled by two key technologies: 3PAR Adaptive Sparing, a patented 3PAR technology which assures that any SSDs, regardless of size, can be used without compromise and with 5x the media endurance. ⁽⁷⁾ 3PAR Express Layout is another enabler that provides concurrent access from the 3PAR storage controllers to the SSDs for higher throughput.

Cloud-native apps with tier-1 data availability via Docker integration
Container technology is a new approach to increase application development and deployment flexibility but as enterprise customers embrace DevOps methodologies it has become clear that highly available, persistent storage is a key requirement in production operations.

To meet these requirements, the company already provides Docker-OpenStack drivers through collaboration with ClusterHQ as part of the official OpenStack release and now has released an official Docker-Integrated Volume plug-in for 3PAR StoreServ Storage. Integrated with Docker Engine, this driver adds the ability to provide persistent storage for containers and enables the use of flash-optimized 3PAR StoreServ arrays as the underlying storage for virtualized or bare-metal container deployments using Docker. With this integration, containerized applications can take advantage of advanced data services data encryption, QoS, snapshots, replication, and deduplication.

Enhanced unified data access and flash-optimized data protection
As flash expands across the datacenter, protecting and securing data at speeds not possible with traditional methods has become a critical requirement. Firm’s Recovery Manager Central (RMC) solves this by directly moving application snapshots from 3PAR flash to secondary protection storage up to 23x faster than traditional storage backup. ⁽⁸⁾ This not only reduces risk, but applying StoreOnce deduplication to the process reduces capacity requirements by 95% or more.⁽⁹⁾ the company expanded the RMC application ecosystem to include Oracle Databases, SAP HANA, and 3PAR File Persona. These new applications join existing application-integrated protection for VMware, SQL, and any Microsoft VSS-enabled application running as a VM.

3PAR has supported unified file, block, and object access for over 18 months and is now enriching these capabilities with security and archiving capabilities including:

File Lock for 3PAR File Persona which protects data consistency and supports governance by making files immutable, enabling policy-based retention, preventing file deletion and supporting data validation.
NTFS security mode and cross-protocol locking for 3PAR File Persona enhance security for Windows environments and deliver more seamless group file sharing between protocols including SMB and NFS.
StoreEver Archive Manager software which lowers the cost of retaining 3PAR file data to be archived on tape yet enables data to be accessed transparently as if still online.

The firm offers a set of technology support and consulting services to help customers navigate their data management and protection journeys. The company announced from Technology Consulting a TCO Analysis for all-flash storage quantifying hardware, software, and energy savings and benefits by adopting all-flash.

Additional offerings also include Flexible Capacity for instant on-demand resources at a cost per gigabyte allocation and engaging with firm’s technology consulting team for transformation services that include current state advisory, design and integration, data migration and end-to-end protection services.

Pricing and availability:

7.68TB SSDs available worldwide starting June 6, 2016, with a US street price starting from $20,748.
15.36TB SSDs will be orderable and shipping 2H2016, with a US street price starting from $40,000.
The Docker-Integrated Volume plug-in for 3PAR StoreServ Storage will be available in June from the Storage GitHub page.
Recovery Manager Central (RMC) with support for SAP HANA and 3PAR File Persona is available worldwide at no additional charge to customers who have an existing RMC license and a valid support contract. Licensing for new customers starts at $1,000.
Recovery Manager Central for Oracle (RMC-O) will be available in July for a list price starting at $2,500. Customers with an existing 3PAR Recovery Manager for Oracle license and a valid support contract can upgrade at no additional charge.
3PAR File Persona enhancements will be available in 2H2016.

⁽¹⁾ Based on publicly available information for currently available single-system storage arrays based on currently available usable capacity.
⁽²⁾ Based on the Q1 2016 IDC WW Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker for External Storage (entry, midrange, and high-end flash; hybrid, and HDD storage systems). ‘Major storage vendor’ refers to the top six vendors as ranked by market share.
⁽³⁾ Based on the Q1 2016 IDC WW Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker for Total Storage Revenue growth (External, Internal and ODM storage systems). Note HPE is ahead of EMC in revenue, but statistically tied for #1 position
⁽⁴⁾ Maximum capacity supported using 8TB drives as of 2H2016.
⁽⁵⁾ Based on the comparison of a single EMC VMAX 850 system with 24PB of SSD capacity as compared to the 3PAR 20850 with 24PB usable SSD capacity (using a 4:1 compaction ration), which is supported as of 2H2016.
⁽⁶⁾ Based on the period between June 2016 and June 2014, density per rack unit improved from 35TB/U to 563TB/U and cost per gigabyte decreased from $2/GB usable (using 1.92TB drives and 4:1 compaction) to $1.20 usable (using 15TB drives and 4:1 compaction).
⁽⁷⁾ Based on internal telemetry data that shows an average burn-out rate for 3PAR SSDs of 0.6% prior to June 2016. The latest Adaptive Sparing enhancements are anticipated to reduce this burn-out rate to 0.2% or lower.
⁽⁸⁾ Based on internal company’s testing performed in May 2016 comparing backup performance of Recovery Manager Central with traditional, non-HPE backup software.
⁽⁹⁾ As compared to a fully hydrated backup. Subject to customer qualification and compliance with the get protected guarantee terms and conditions.