HP today announced that it has been positioned in the "Leaders" quadrant in the Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for Combined Storage Resource Management and SAN Management Software" report for 2005. This year's report marks the first time Gartner has designated "Leaders" in the combined SRM/SAN management software space. According to Gartner, vendors listed in the Leaders' quadrant are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market. HP's October 2005 acquisition of AppIQ, previously an HP original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner, resulted in HP Storage Essentials, a suite of advanced heterogeneous storage resource management tools. HP Storage Essentials plugs into HP Systems Insight Manager, the foundation of HP's unified infrastructure management strategy. By combining server and storage management, HP is enabling customers to dramatically simplify their environments and significantly reduce operational costs, not just acquisition costs. "With the acquisition of AppIQ, HP now possesses a combination of technology, financial strength, strategic OEM relationships, services and expertise to deliver industry-leading, heterogeneous SRM solutions," said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, HP. "We are committed to maintaining this market position through additional investments in SRM technology, deep integration with the rest of HP's software, hardware and services portfolio, continued support for our OEM partners, and unrivaled execution." HP continues to offer AppIQ's foundational StorageAuthority multi-vendor SRM and SAN management technology products through OEM partners Engenio Information Technologies, Hitachi Data Systems, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems. More information on HP Storage Essentials is available at its Web site