Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) recently improved its entry storage products to help budget-conscious customers leverage their data and speed up applications. These new HPE MSA Storage options deliver the most budget-friendly dual-controller hybrid flash array from a major vendor while the new HPE StoreEasy 1650 Expanded makes storing large amounts of information more economical.

Being able to quickly and effectively use information is crucial for success. “Agility and speed are critical for staying competitive in today’s economy, no matter the business size,” said Manish Goel, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Storage at HPE. “That’s why Hewlett Packard Enterprise is making enterprise-grade storage scale and performance attainable for customers working within even the tightest budgets.”

Hybrid flash performance for 45% less

HPE has enhanced its HPE MSA Storage family to include solid-state drive (SSD, also known as flash) support for the HPE MSA 1040. This expanded SSD support brings new hybrid flash configurations starting at under US$8,500. SSDs offer the benefit of lower power consumption and a smaller footprint while providing enhanced performance compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. Both the MSA 1040 and 2040 can now utilize flash media. These new SSDs provide hybrid flash acceleration at prices 30% lower for the same capacity, making improved performance and reduced latency achievable for more businesses.

The improved HPE MSA 1040 can:

• Increase storage efficiency with advanced storage virtualization capabilities such as thin provisioning, improved snapshot services, wide-striping, and flash-based acceleration.
• Make read caching 70% faster and performance tiering 90% faster with a minimal investment in SSD capacity starting at US$1,599.
• Lower storage costs by up to 75% by leveraging MSA’s archive tiering capabilities, which automatically move data to the appropriate storage tier. Frequently accessed data is stored in pricier, faster storage, while rarely used data goes into less expensive storage with longer retrieval times.

Network-attached storage (NAS) at 41% lower cost, in 80% less space

For customers needing an affordable solution for bulk and secondary file storage, the HPE StoreEasy 1650 Expanded NAS appliance accommodates 28 large form factor (LFF) drives for up to 224 TB of internal capacity in a 2U form factor. This makes it the densest 2U NAS appliance available. This scalable solution allows customers to store unstructured data at a 41% lower cost in 80% less space with 82% fewer components compared to a similar NetApp FAS system.

This new addition offers quick configuration tools, storage provisioning templates, and a central monitoring dashboard for easy management. The system includes multiple layers of security, including drive, file system, and data-in-flight encryption, as well as advanced data access policies based on automated file classification. The StoreEasy solution also delivers secure anywhere sync-and-share support for Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows devices.

Interested?

The HPE StoreEasy 1650 Expanded and the HPE MSA 1040 belong to the HPE Just Right IT portfolio and are available via the HPE Small Business Marketplace. The new MSA SSD drives are currently available at the following prices and capacity points: 400GB for US$1,200; 800GB for US$2,278; 1.6TB for US$4,300; 3.2TB for US$7,500.

SSDs on the MSA 1040 are supported through firmware update GL220, which is available on hpe.com free of charge for customers under warranty or with a current service contract. The MSA 1040 Advanced Virtualization Upgrade license is priced at US$384 as of February 15, 2016.

The StoreEasy 1650 Expanded has a starting price of US$14,720 with 32TB of capacity.

*1 Based on published US List pricing from Dell, EMC, IBM, HPE, and Network Appliance, January 2016.

*2 Cost reduction is based on the US list price for an MSA 2040 SAN small form factor (SFF) array with 4 x 1GbE iSCSI small form factor pluggables (SFPs) and 2 x 200 GB SSDs (US$14,768) compared to the US Smart Buy list price for a 1GbE iSCSI MSA 1040 SFF array with 2 x 200 GB SSDs and an MSA 1040 Advanced Virtualization upgrade (US$8,038).

*3 Based on the publicly available US list Smart Buy price for a 1.4TB, 1GbE iSCSI MSA 1040 SFF array with one 200 GB SSD, four 300GB 10k (10,000 revolutions per minute) HDDs, and an MSA 1040 Advanced Virtualization upgrade, totaling US$7,817.

*4 Based on US list prices for a 400GB SSD at US$2,220 (previously US$3,099), 800GB SSD at US$4,219 (previously US$5,999), 1.6TB SSD at US$7,979 (previously US$10,969).

*5 Based on the US list price for a single 200 GB SSD and a series of workload tests conducted by Demartek in collaboration with Read Cache and MSA Performance R/W Tiering functionality. Complete reports are available on the Demartek website under the following links – Exchange, SQL, Mixed Virtualized Workloads.

*6 Expressed as the cost per gigabyte for storage moved to the Archive Tier and based on HPE internal testing using Archive Tiering capabilities to store infrequently accessed data from Enterprise SAS (10k/15k) drives to Midline SAS (7.2k) drives.

*7 Based on publicly available product information. Compared to NetApp FAS2520 with 216 TB of raw capacity.

*8 Based on HPE’s internal analysis of publicly available information, February 2016.

*9 Based on publicly available product information. Compared to the NetApp FAS2520 with 216 TB of raw capacity.

*10 US list prices or publicly available US Smart Buy prices where indicated. Actual prices may vary.