By Kevin Komiega

Hewlett-Packard expanded its line of entry-level storage systems for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) this week with the debut of two new direct-attached storage (DAS) disk arrays with support for multiple drive types and price tags of well under $5,000.

The new systems—the StorageWorks MSA60 and MSA70—support Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives, as well as low-cost, high-capacity Serial ATA (SATA) drives in the same enclosure.

The MSA60 supports 3.5-inch SAS or SATA drives for a maximum capacity of up to 3.6TB with 12 SAS drives, or 9TB with 12 SATA drives. It can be directly attached to HP ProLiant and Integrity servers. Cascading of enclosures in a 1+3 configuration allows users to daisy-chain the systems to increase capacity.

The MSA70 supports 2.5-inch small-form-factor (SFF) SAS or SATA drives for a maximum capacity of 3.6TB with 25 SAS drives, or 1.5TB with 25 SATA drives. Users can attach the disks to ProLiant or Integrity servers and can cascade enclosures in a 1+1 configuration.

Both systems take up two rack units and offer data-protection features such as RAID 6 with Advanced Data Guarding to prevent downtime or data loss during upgrades or in the event of drive failures.

HP has recently been on a mission to migrate SMB customers to networked storage. So why roll out the direct-attached gear? HP says an estimated 60% of smaller companies are still living in a DAS world, and it would be a mistake not to provide new products to those customers.

"The ultimate goal is shared storage," says Charles Vallhonrat, product marketing manager for entry-level SANs in HP's StorageWorks division. "Shared storage provides users with better overall total cost of ownership over time, but we still have to provide customers with the building blocks. We want to make sure there is an easy path for them to get to [networked storage]," he adds.

According to Vallhonrat, SMBs are embracing DAS, NAS, and SAN technologies at a significant rate—that is, as long as the products are priced under $15,000. HP claims that the sub-$15,000 market is among the fastest-growing segments in storage, and the company can attest to that. HP recently announced shipment of its 100,000th Modular Storage Array (MSA) system. The MSA family, along with the relatively new HP StorageWorks All-in-One (AiO) line of products, makes up HP's entry-level storage portfolio.

The StorageWorks MSA60 is available now, while the MSA70 is expected to be available in the first half of 2007.

The MSA60 is priced from $2,999. As for the MSA70, HP says the "average US list price will not exceed $3,250."

(InfoStor Online Article--Dec 5, 2006)