HP D2D Backup System Catches Eye Of Midmarket VARs

As data protection and disaster recovery become more ubiquitous in the midmarket, Hewlett-Packard has armed solution providers with a new disk-to-disk system, as well as training and marketing incentives to support them.

The HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System comes in 1- and 2-Tbyte models, backs up as many as four servers and integrates into network-based IT environments with an iSCSI interface.

HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System

The device meets a need that HP saw in the market, according to the Palo Alto, Calif., company, and it plans on marketing the unit aggressively to its storage solution provider partners.

"What we found is SMBs really don't have storage-unique expertise. They have IT administrators that understand the applications they're trying to run, and by making this product simple, easy to use and affordable, we allow customers to address that pain point without having to become an expert in backup and storage technology," said Harry Baeverstad, director of SMB for the HP StorageWorks unit.

The product fits into HP's Simply StorageWorks strategy to help solution providers and their customers take advantage of networked storage and virtualization technologies. "Certainly, it's a key play to the D2D backup—when you get the networked storage in place, it becomes simpler to back that up," he said.

HP also is pushing file services and business protection initiatives, and to help the channel, the company is investing in training programs for solution providers, as well as marketing campaigns and demand generation.

The D2D Backup System is available through distributors Arrow, Avnet, Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data, HP said.

Arlin Sorensen, president of Heartland Technologies, a solution provider in Harlan, Iowa, said the product addresses a midmarket need. "It's going to be a great fit in the core midmarket space. It's not going to necessarily scale to a larger midmarket-type client but certainly for the core midmarket customers in the markets we serve, I think it's an ideal fit," he said.

HP has provided Heartland Technologies with demo units and marketing collateral that includes a DVD with case studies and testimonials to present to potential customers, often in health care and education. However, he added, "We're using it ourselves, which is the best marketing tool out there. Our team is comfortable and familiar with it, and they can talk about it."

The product fills a gap for midmarket companies weary of tape solutions, Sorensen said. "People are extremely frustrated with tape. Everyone is looking for a solution that's much more reliable and shortens the backup window to a more manageable time frame," he said. "The disk-to-disk solutions are going to be the answer for the midmarket and for small businesses."

Alain Lamoureux, national director of the enterprise server and storage solutions group at Compugen, a solution provider in Toronto, agrees with Sorensen's assessment of the market and HP's D2D Backup solution.

"A lot of the challenges businesses face are around ensuring business continuity," Lamoureux said. "Up until now [virtual tape library] solutions weren't accessible to small- and medium-size businesses, mainly because of price. The entry points to those solutions were so high that it didn't make business sense for SMB customers to invest," he said.