Net-new offerings include 3PAR Flash Acceleration for Oracle and the 3PAR StoreServ 8200 Converged File and Block Starter Kit.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced a multiplicity of new storage products, solutions and services, most of which revolve around HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage. They include a new Converged File and Block Starter Kit, new 3PAR reference architectures and solutions, and integration with the HPE StoreOnce and HPE StoreEver product lines.

“We really could have done three separate press releases, covering three areas of the transformation and modernization of infrastructure that HPE is defining here,” said Vish Mulchand, Senior Director, Product Management and Marketing, Storage, HPE.

One area covers three new solution and support announcements – new 3PAR Flash Acceleration for Oracle, the extension of 3PAR Online Import software to IBM, and support for 3D NAND drives. The second area is the 3PAR StoreServ 8200 Converged File and Block Starter Kit, which leverages the system’s flash-optimized design that supports both file and block storage. The third element of the announcement is a varied series of data protection announcements, including a new lineup of entry and mid-range HPE StoreOnce Systems, and a refresh of the StoreEver LTO-7 media, drives and automated libraries, which includes combing 3PAR StoreServ flash arrays with these new StoreEver Tape offerings.

3PAR Flash Acceleration for Oracle is an HPE-supported, third-party validated solution that boosts database performance up to 75 per cent, while avoiding the need to replace existing infrastructure.

“Many Oracle databases rely on high end storage because they need lots of drive for performance, and needed resiliency,” Mulchand said. “But these high-end devices take a lot of tuning and tweaking for SLA, and are also costly and big. While flash is a very attractive choice for database acceleration, replacing the infrastructure in place isn’t easy. This solution lets you insert flash to augment a replace a legacy array, rather than replace it.” Enabling legacy systems to remain in place this way saves half the cost of upgrading those systems, while facilitating an enhanced service level, plus the savings from flash.

“For partners who work with Oracle databases, this brings in a new consulting approach to solving performance problems,” Mulchand said.

3PAR Online Import software is a free, 12-month license for customers looking to migrate from HDD storage to flash. Previously it was available for EMC and HDS. It now covers IBM XIV storage.

“We will also continue to add support for more platforms,” Mulchand said.

HPE also announced support for 3D NAND drives, the next generation of this SSD technology.

“This will allow partners to have new discussions with customers,” Mulchand noted.

‘We are adding additional support for unified workloads that require both file and block protocol access, and have created a new starter kit for unified systems to make it easy,” Mulchand said. “It includes the array, drives, and replication software, and gives twice the performance at 26 per cent lower cost than EMC.”

Mulchand said the 3PAR StoreServ 8200 Converged File and Block Starter Kit is particularly targeted at midrange arrays, and in systems where unified workloads come into play, like VDI, SAP HANA and surveillance use cases.

“The starter kit is at an attractive price point, and brings together elements in a way that will be easy for partners to sell,” Mulchand said.

To help customers deploy these unified systems with more confidence, HPE also released several reference architectures for 3PAR StoreServ Storage, addressing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Sharepoint environments as well as HPE Software solutions for information management, including HPE Data Protector.

HPE has also refreshed its portfolio of StoreEver LTO-7 media, drives and automated libraries.

“These have two times the capacity and two times the performance of their predecessors,” Mulchand said.

Pairing high-performance 3PAR StoreServ flash arrays with these new StoreEver Tape offerings lets customers deploy a “tape as NAS” solution to simply and seamlessly access bulk archives on tape as if they were on disk. Mulchand said this made them ideal for active archives.

Finally, HPE announced a new lineup of entry and mid-range HPE StoreOnce Systems.

“These have up to 40 per cent lower cost and up to twice the density of EMC Data Domain,” Mulchand said. “These new models get to under 5 per cent per usable GB of logical capacity.”

Mulchand said partners also have a role to help partners sort through all these options in modernizing data protection.

“The channel can help customers wave through this large array of choice,” he said.

The HPE StoreOnce 3100 with 8TB of raw backup capacity will be available worldwide on December 14, 2015, with a street price starting at $USD 5,931.25. The StoreOnce 3520 will start at 12TB raw with a street price starting at $USD 8,128.55. The StoreOnce 3540 starts with 24TB raw with a street price starting at $USD 10,950. The StoreOnce 5100 starts with 48TB raw with a street price starting at $USD 25,056.

Version 2.0 of StoreOnce RMC software, which allows native data movement from 3PAR to StoreOnce backup for data protection, will be available worldwide on January 15, 2016, with a US street price starting from $540.

StoreEver LTO-7 tape media, tape drives, and tape automation products are available worldwide on December 1, 2015, starting at $USD 4,831 street price for an internal tape drive.

3D NAND SSDs will be available worldwide on December 17, 2015, with a street price starting from $USD 2,075 per drive and capacity points starting at 400 GB.

The 3PAR StoreServ 8200 Converged File and Block Starter Kit with 8 10K 600-GB SAS drives, 12 2-TB 7.2K SAS drives, OS Suite, Replication Suite, 3 years of 24×7 Proactive Care Support, and a 16-TB File Persona license is available worldwide on December 7, 2015 for a street price of $USD 36,201.