HP Preps New Data Life-Cycle Offerings

The vendor this week plans to unveil several new additions and enhancements to its information life-cycle management (ILM) product line in order to help customers more efficiently manage the protection and long-term archiving of their data, said Frank Harbist, vice president of HP’s storage software and ILM products.

HP expects to roll out the products to the channel during the next three months. Pricing is not yet available.

Among the new products is HP StorageWorks Continuous Information Capture Solution, the company’s first continuous data-protection (CDP) software. The product is based on technology from Mendocino Software, Fremont, Calif., with which HP has an OEM pact.

Continuous Information Capture instantly backs up any change to data, enabling customers to roll back a file to any point in time if that file becomes corrupted or accidentally changed. HP rival EMC also resells the Mendocino application under an OEM pact.

Rich Baldwin, president and CEO of Nth Generation, a San Diego-based solution provider, said CDP software such as Continuous Information Capture is becoming a must-have for many of his customers.

“Today, most clients really have a need, if their systems go down, to get back up quickly without losing data,” he said.

Another HP solution provider said he is glad to see HP finally jump into the CDP space using the Mendocino software, but wonders why HP doesn’t acquire Mendocino.

“HP is always OEMing others’ products, but not buying the technology,” he said. “So the company acts like an integrator. I can do the same thing as them, only cheaper.”

Baldwin agreed that HP could keep ahead of the technology curve by acquiring Mendocino and other vendors such as San Francisco-based Riverbed Technology, from whom it OEMs wide-area file services (WAFS) technology .

Acquisitions such as those would be part of a pattern at HP, Baldwin said. HP has in the past tested technologies through OEM deals before acquiring storage resource management vendor AppIQ, IT assessment management and tracking vendor Peregrine Systems, and enterprise file-archiving software vendor OuterBay, he said.

“Mendocino and Riverbed are both acquisition candidates,” he said. “I think HP will buy more of these companies. ”

HP is also enhancing several products in its Reference Information Storage System (RISS), an array that used to archive data over extended periods for compliance/regulatory purposes.