HP bolsters storage strategy
- Posted:
- 13:11 26 Jul 2001
- Topics:
- Storage Management Software | Networked Storage | Storage Management
Both moves fill important gaps in HP's storage product offering, explained Jim Porter, president of storage industry think-tank Disk/Trend.
"They're filling in the weak spots," said Porter. "They have been predominantly oriented to the corporate storage market, and a lot of the [storage technology] has been in the Internet area. So I think it is a matter of supplementing their coverage and just beefing it up."
HP will acquire enterprise storage vendor StorageApps in an all-stock transaction valued at $350m (£245m). Subject to standard regulatory approval processes, StorageApps, formerly named Raid Power Service, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HP, the companies said in a statement.
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HP's real target is the company's storage virtualisation technology, which HP intends to feature in its so-called federated storage area management (FSAM) strategy, HP said.
Still being perfected, storage virtualisation allows customers to manage multiple, mixed vendor storage devices as they would a single, virtual storage device.
Starting in the first quarter of 2002, HP will also begin shipping a variety of storage products centred around the emerging iSCSI standard for linking data storage systems over IP, according to Mark Thompson, worldwide marketing manager for HP's networked storage division.
Many companies currently rely on Fibre Channel or SCSI technology for sending information between storage devices and servers in a storage area network (SAN) environment. The iSCSI standard, however, has garnered wide industry support and should create more options for users looking to link storage boxes with servers.
The introduction of the iSCSI standard allows storage devices to connect to existing IP networks, making more information available to more parts of the network. In addition, the use of iSCSI makes it easier for administrators to manage their SAN systems remotely.
Arun Taneja, a senior analyst with the Enterprise Storage Group, said it was important for HP to announce that the company was in step with competing iSCSI storage products in the works from vendors like IBM, EMC and Compaq.
"I think [HP] needed to get a place holder in there. So now, if HP has a particular customer, at least they know that if they want to go in the iSCSI side, they don't have to go to an IBM product."
Both Taneja and Porter feel that HP potentially has another acquisition in the works as it continues to fill out its storage product offerings.
"I don't believe HP is fully done with acquisitions yet," said Taneja. "They need a network attached storage offering real bad. They are going to need to fill in that blank, it's a very major piece missing right now."
HP will not abandon its Fibre Channel business in the near future, but the vendor plans to launch an iSCSI assault early next year in hopes of attracting customers who have yet to decide how they will move from a direct attached to a networked storage architecture.
HP acknowledges that some customers will always feel comfortable dealing with Fibre Channel and will tend toward improvements made with Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol instead of embracing iSCSI. But the company believes users' familiarity with IP and, in particular, Ethernet technology should make iSCSI products attractive.
"A year ago we had the hypothesis that it was small and medium-size companies that would go after iSCSI," Thompson said. "But now we are seeing Fortune100 companies who get excited about it, along with the smaller companies."
Work is still under way to refine Version one of the iSCSI specification and make it available by December of this year or January 2002. The lack of a finished specification did not stop IBM from announcing one of the first iSCSI products earlier this year - the IP Storage 200i appliance.
HP claims its broad product line can compete with the top-tier storage vendors such as IBM and EMC, and at the same time go up against low-cost storage players such as Dell.
Some users praise companies such as EMC for providing storage software with a number of management features. Others, however, tend to prefer more basic software that gets the job done at a lower cost. HP claims it can satisfy both sets of customers by either offering products with entry-level software or by boosting the hardware with its OpenView applications.
"At the top level, we will compete with EMC and IBM to offer very high-end, fully functional products," Thompson said. "At the low end, you can also strip things back and compete more directly with a Dell."
StorageApps products won by HP in the acquisition include the SANLink appliance, a network storage device that integrates hardware, software, and services providing connectivity for servers and storage; the SANLink Storage system, a device aimed at the enterprise market; and the SANMaster, a SAN information and monitoring system, the companies said.
