HP Taps Microsoft Software for SMB Storage

Hewlett-Packard is leveraging Microsoft software in a new portfolio of storage products aimed at taking on EMC in the small-to-midsize (SMB) market.

HP’s StorageWorks All-in-One (AiO) Storage Systems come in two models for a range of capacity needs, and can be installed in less than 10 clicks of a mouse, the company said. The systems provide storage, sharing, management, backup and protection for SMBs’ application and file data.

The HP StorageWorks AiO400 has four drive bays with serial ATA (SATA) ports and capacity of 1 terabyte of networked storage for US$5,000. For SMBs that have bigger storage needs, the HP StorageWorks AiO600 has six drive bays in a rack or tower and can provide 1.5 terabytes of SATA capacity for $6,700, 3 terabytes of SATA capacity for $9,000 or 876GB of serial attached SCSI (SAS) capacity for $9,250. SAS drives are typically more reliable and higher performing than SATA drives, and so storage devices with these drives cost more.

The systems are based on Microsoft’s Windows Storage Server and are specifically designed or Microsoft environments, HP said. The new AiO systems include point-and-click tools for working with both Microsoft Exchange messaging server and the SQL Server database.

HP first announced it was planning networked storages for SMBs in July, saying it wanted to take on EMC in that market as well as capitalize on what IDC predicts will be a $5.7 billion market opportunity by 2010. The company designed the new offerings to be simple so SMBs can install and maintain them without a full-time IT department, HP said.

HP plans to sell the AiO systems mainly through its channel partners, which the company said number more than 145,000 worldwide.

-Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service (New York Bureau)

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