Hewlett-Packard is changing its focus. Instead of pushing out
more storage capacity, the supplier is helping users to squeeze
better value from the capacity they already have. Paul
Kunert reports from HP's Ensa@Work conference in
Amsterdam
Enterprise storage has been prescribed too much and companies that
ploughed money into large systems with massive capacity have not,
in a significant number of cases, realised an return on
investment.
This frank admission from Hewlett-Packard may come as some
surprise, given that HP is one of the many companies that helped to
create this predicament. But HP is now casting itself in the role
of industry doctor, delivering technologies that help hard-pressed
users handle their storage problems more effectively.
Given the state of the global economy, it is hardly surprising that
HP's mantra at last month's Enterprise Network Storage Architecture
@ Work (Ensa@Work) event in Amsterdam was squeezing value for money
out of existing technology investments, and building and paying for
systems on a modular basis as companies grow. The message
"controlling the cost of your IT infrastructures" permeated the
whole event which - in its sixth year - has evolved from a
storage-only show to unite various strands of HP's enterprise
divisions.
In a keynote speech, HP president and CEO Carly Fiorina claimed
businesses were focused on "something more practical and more
fundamental".
She suggested harsh economic reality had struck home and businesses
wanted real value for money. "How do I [as a customer] make sure
that I can live with not just the initial cost, but the ongoing
costs, of owning and operating technology?"
Brad Anderson, HP vice-president for servers, storage and
infrastructure, said customers were demanding "better utilisation
of assets".
"We are delivering products and services that enable you to do
that," he said. "With our blade servers we are offering Proliant
software management tools that allow you to rapidly and
consistently deploy operating systems and applications on your
system. Cost-saving tools are common to all our products, so
customers don't have to invest in specialist tools that work only
in a limited set of platforms - with our products, you can manage a
remote resource centrally."
Anderson said consolidation had been a feature of customer
environments since 2000, and that HP had selectively picked
technology and driven products with more "adaptive infrastructure
capabilities".
"Some customers are growing and need to know how to adapt
[technology] rapidly - others have bought too much," he
added.
Howard Elias, senior vice-president and general manager for network
storage solutions, conceded that customers had had their fingers
burned by the industry when they bought large systems they were
told they would grow into.
He said that as a result, customers were more "sensitive" and had
changed their buying patterns, seeking to adopt a modular approach
and build their IT infrastructures one step at a time.
"Up to this point, customers spent what they budgeted - now they
don't necessarily spend the whole budget," he said. "Their demands
are for more measurable and demonstrable return on
investment."
But Elias believes that the ROI from storage area network
investments has grown and that average storage use rates have
ballooned from 30% two years ago to 60%.
Bob Shultz, vice-president of marketing for HP network storage
solutions, said that in an attempt to help businesses better use
their storage systems and IT infrastructures, HP had become the
first company to "articulate an architecture for network-based
virtualisation".
"Sans continue to grow in adoption and are growing in size, so we
are looking at how to simplify their management and [improve]
utilisation," he said. "Businesses want a resource pool that they
can share and reallocate, and they are looking for heterogeneous
connectivity."
Schultz added that although dealers were familiar with the term
"network-based virtualisation", they lacked experience with the
products - a problem HP that would remedy with channel training
projects.
Ever since budgets have become strained, the glue of the storage
market and the key to efficient systems has been software.
Anton Knolmar, HP's director of channel marketing for global
software business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, claimed he
had heard of instances where companies were using storage devices
"as a desk or a chair".
"They can't deploy because they don't need that much capacity - a
lot of companies have invested in hardware since Y2K," he
said.
But Knolmar suggested it was not just storage devices that were
being under-used. "Value comes if you manage the entire IT
infrastructure - systems, servers, applications, web services and
data storage."
One innovation to help on this front has been the introduction last
November of adaptive management. The process allows businesses to
use heterogeneous infrastructure resources in their enterprises,
and is designed to save money through efficient management of
networks in response to user analysis.
There is certainly a growing need for technology to deliver on its
promises. Almost 4,000 people attended the HP event, which goes to
show that, in the current tight economic conditions, storage and
enterprise computing remain hot topics.
HP storage developments
HP has delivered architecture for implementing network-based
storage virtualisation. This concept is designed to simplify
storage management, improve storage use and allow storage services
across heterogeneous environments through their enhanced
virtualisation
In collaboration with Brocade, HP will deploy Versastor
virtualisation technology with the Brocade Silkworm Fabric
application platform, which the supplier claimed would enable
greater levels of scalability and performance in heterogeneous
storage environments
At the Ensa@Work event, HP established a heterogeneous San with
more than 1,000 ports. Made up of 10 different operating systems
running on 15 different server hardware platforms, the open San
showcase could provide technology for future adaptive IT
infrastructures
HP and Microsoft have expanded their global relationship to
further their presence in the worldwide network attached storage
(Nas) market, through their Storageworks and Windows-powered Nas
systems. These systems are optimised, function-focused, file and
data servers based on the software giant's technology.
HP server launches
HP announced that it has released a four-processor blade server.
The introduction of the Proliant BL40p server means the supplier
has one-, two- and four-processor systems, enabling datacentres,
service providers and telecommunications companies to build
complete multi-tiered environments using blade servers
Last month also saw the unveiling of HP's latest and most
powerful Alphaserver system to date. The HP Alphaserver GS1280 is
based on the EV7 Alpha processor and, according to the supplier,
will provide customers with performance, scalability, reliability,
manageability and availability.