HP today announced its first dedicated storage blade, which provides customers with quick and efficient storage expansion to enable greater flexibility within IT infrastructures. The company also introduced two offerings within the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family to accelerate backup and recovery, reduce costs and make storage area networks (SANs) simpler to manage. The HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade can add up to 876 gigabytes of direct attached RAID storage capacity to each blade within an HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure. A key enabler of HP’s Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio, storage blades help companies improve their IT organizations by speeding change and delivering improved cost efficiencies and quality of service. Based on industry-standard components, including small form factor Serial Attached SCSI drives and an embedded SmartArray P400 controller, the SB40c’s density and power efficiency accommodate the space and power constraints of data centers. In addition, the storage blade offers simplified and automated storage and server management via HP Systems Insight Manager and Integrated Lights-Out tools. The processing power of BladeSystem c-Class server blades, combined with the SB40c, provides the performance and capacity needed for demanding applications such as file and print, mail and messaging, video streaming, databases and distributed file systems. “HP’s continued innovation and investment in its StorageWorks portfolio are providing customers with greater choice and more affordable options to meet their storage needs,” said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, HP. “New offerings like the SB40c are helping HP lead the way for customers that want to simplify their IT infrastructures.” Improving backup and recovery performance with EVA Gateway The HP StorageWorks VLS300 EVA Gateway changes the game of virtual tape by scaling beyond 500 terabytes (TB) of capacity and providing throughput in excess of eight TB per hour, dramatically accelerating SAN backup and recovery in even the largest IT environments. Leveraging the power and simplicity of the HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array, the VLS300 EVA Gateway allows customers to standardize on a common storage, management and fabric infrastructure. Emulating up to 1,024 tape drives and 128 libraries, customers can seamlessly integrate disk into their existing enterprise data protection processes, reduce complexity and improve performance. The VLS300 EVA Gateway joins a growing family of EVA-based storage solutions such as the HP StorageWorks EVA iSCSI Connectivity Option, the HP StorageWorks EFS Clustered NAS Gateway, and the HP StorageWorks EML E-Series Tape Libraries. Simplifying installation and management with EVA SAN Starter Kit The HP StorageWorks EVA4000 SAN Starter Kit delivers a robust, cost-effective, easy-to-use SAN storage solution for small and medium businesses. Based on the powerfully simple EVA, this starter kit is a complete out-of-the box solution for customers who are ready for a SAN but had been concerned about SAN complexities. Designated by Microsoft as a Simple SAN solution, the EVA4000 SAN Starter Kit provides comprehensive SAN management and a flexible environment for future growth. Additionally, management tasks are automated with a centralized interface for provisioning on Windows 2003 hosts – using an enterprise-class array and enterprise-class components. “HP is a strategic partner for Microsoft and was one of the first storage vendors to recognize the value of the Simple SAN program,” said Dr. Claude Lorenson, group product manager for Storage, Windows Server Division, Microsoft. “We are delighted that the EVA4000 SAN Starter Kit has received the designation of Microsoft Simple SAN solution, and we look forward to more Simple SAN solutions offerings from HP.” More information about the latest offerings in the HP StorageWorks portfolio is available at its Web site. More information about the HP BladeSystem is available at its Web site.