Recent flat sales in the data storage industry have been attributed to various things, from stagnant incumbents to disruptive newcomers and confusing hardware options unsettling potential buyers.
Despite this, the potential for software defined storage (SDS) to become the new way that leads enterprise into the era of the software defined data centre (SDDC) that can deliver IT as a Service (ITaaS) is hard to question.
With that in mind, HP reckons it is well placed to lead in the endeavour, and has demonstrated this position with the announcement of its free virtual server appliance (VSA).
HP will provide a 1Tb StoreVirtual VSA licence at no cost to all purchasers of Intel Xeon processor E5 v3-based servers, including servers from Dell, IBM and Lenovo, as well as new HP ProLiant Generation 9 (Gen9) Server models, which now feature single-click VSA deployment.
Virtualisation continues to be the fastest-growing infrastructure trend, but adoption remains a challenge at smaller sites that lack the budget, space and storage expertise required by enterprise-class storage solutions.
Any new system must support growth without complexity, while handling unpredictable demand gracefully, said David Scott, senior vice president, HP Storage Division, Enterprise Group. Such systems must be accompanied by high service levels, reducing business risk and providing seamless investment protection.
The new architectures are focused and optimised on delivering ITaaS, said Scott, while being managed and orchestrated openly, on converged optimised infrastructure.
Scott said that HP’s vision was for “Polymorphic Simplicity” — that is one primary storage system architecture, with one protection and retention system, one approach to block, object and file, and, critically, one architecture for both hard disk drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SSD) and flash. The concept also has common data services low-to-high, and a single approach to training, management, interoperability and replication in each environment.
Of the polymorphic simplicity concept, Scott said that the modern architectures dynamically assign resources to meet unpredictable demand, achieving business goals.
HP can now achieve this architecture vision through in storage, through its 3PAR StoreServ systems and in protection and retention through its StoreOnce and StoreAll systems, said Scott, all of which is extensible to SDS through StoreVirtual VSA and StoreOnce VSA.
These combined offerings can help service providers who struggle to achieve affordable shared storage with advanced capabilities they can then sell to their customers, according to a company statement. To help customers simplify and cost optimise server virtualisation, Scott said that HP will distribute licences for more than 72Pb of SDS capacity at no additional charge to customers.
Under this programme, any customer that purchases an Intel Xeon processor E5 v3-based server will be able to download HP StoreVirtual VSA software and obtain a licence for 1Tb of SDS capacity.
HP general manager, storage, South Pacific, Paul Shaw, said the cost of shared storage was still a common server virtualisation roadblock for SMBs and enterprise remote office sites.
“By offering no-cost VSA software with Intel Xeon E5 v3-based processor servers, HP and Intel are making SDS available to the world for free, giving customers access to hypervisor agnostic, hardware independent rich data services while preserving choice and lowering costs,” he said.
Intel general manager, storage, Bev Crair, said Intel processors were the smart choice for a software defined world.
“Purpose-built to support the agile, efficient data centre, Intel Xeon E5 v3 processors provide the optimal platform for delivering intelligent storage while meeting compute and networking needs across the software-defined data centre.”
Arnnet and TechCentral Reporters
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