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Hewlett-Packard on Monday expanded its 3PAR storage portfolio with new midrange models that now give HP a single storage architecture, serving midrange- to enterprise-level customers.
The Monday introduction of the new HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series storage solutions brings the starting price of the HP 3PAR storage family down to the $25,000 range, giving HP its first storage architecture that helps customers and channel partners scale from the midrange to the enterprise.
"This is the biggest thing we've done for storage for years," said Craig Nunes, vice president of worldwide marketing for HP storage. "And it marks a milestone for us."
[Related: HP's 3PAR Storage Connects To Blades Without SAN, Targeting Cisco, EMC Offerings]
That milestone is the unification of HP's storage on a common architecture from the midrange through the enterprise on 3PAR, a move that comes two years after HP closed its $2.35-billion acquisition of 3PAR.
Prior to the release of the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 series storage solutions, HP covered the range through multiple lines, including its MSA, EVA and LeftHand lines at the midrange and 3PAR and the Hitachi Data Systems-manufactured XP at the enterprise.
In that aspect, HP has been very much like nearly all its primary competitors in that their storage lines include products ranging from midrange to enterprise market but are not compatible with other lines from the same vendor. The only real exception has been NetApp, whose FAS line of storage solutions uses that company's Data Ontap operating system, making the arrays all compatible with each other.
Lack of compatibility within a vendor's own product lines has not gone unnoticed by customers, Nunes said. "To get the job done in large enterprise, they're probably slogging through 10 different platforms for storage," he said.
He cited arch-rival EMC as an example. "EMC's VNXe has a different architect from the VNX, or the VMAXe at the high end," he said. "And if you want to move live data between them, you can't without multiple manual operations."
HP's channel partners praised HP for centering its storage strategy on the HP 3PAR line.
NEXT: HP VARs Praise HP 3PAR Storage Line
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