Microsoft Office 2007 Key HP Trickles Up Features

Most with the time in IT, new function sets trickle down from high-end server and storage methods and become standard in lower-end, less-powerful hardware and software program for modest to medium-size organizations and residence offices. Typically, they also turn into more affordable.


Right here is a situation by which the trickling is going upstream.

Amongst several storage-related announcements manufactured on Sept. 29, Hewlett-Packard introduced the StorageWorks X510 Information Vault Sequence desktop mini-tower, a near-duplicate of HP's MediaSmart Server that residence users use to see video clip and images and pay attention to songs. The X510 runs on Windows House Server and supports PC clients running Windows or Mac OS methods.

To get it up and running, all a user has to do is plug in the power cord and Ethernet connection. It both backs up data stores and can restore the entire system following a power outage or other disruption, Lee Johns, HP director of marketing for unified computing, told eWEEK.

"You can access this remotely, even from an iPhone, if that's what you're using," Johns said. The business-oriented X510 is powered by a 2.5GHz Pentium E5200 processor and features 2GB of RAM. It has four internal SATA drive bays -- each of which supports a drive of up to 1.5TB capacity. It has four USB ports and an eSata port to enable a maximum of 13.5TB capacity, HP claimed.

Designed for SMBs with up to 10 Windows PC or Mac OS X clients, the X510 includes such useful business capabilities as remote file access, fully-automated client backup and remote desktop control. The pricing of the network-attached storage device is also part with the news: $699 for the 1TB starter package.

With this new product, Hewlett-Packard, well known for office peripherals that include printers and scanners, now wants to supply little and mid-range corporations with yet another IT machine: desktop data storage units.

In the process, HP is heading into stiff new competition with companies such as Iomega, Seagate and Buffalo in an effort to offer inexpensive desktop storage to corporations with numerous servers to one- or two-person microbusinesses with one server or none at all.

HP also announced upgrades to the StorageWorks X1000 and X3000 Network Storage Methods it released last May. The X1000 and X3000 combine file and application storage so that SMBs do not need to invest in siloed storage methods.

"The X1000 and X3000 are self-contained methods; they have iSCSI and file serving with an automated storage manager, which makes it very easy for an SMB to configure," Johns said at the time.

"A user can basically just request extra capacity. For example, it can add an extra 100MB for an application like [Microsoft] Exchange. The system will just go off and configure what's needed, carve up the LUNs automatically, and get it deployed."

HP also announced something called Higher Availability Bundles, which are pre-configured hardware-software packages built around the X3000 gateway and Windows Storage Server 2008.

The bundles include most normal high-end enterprise storage features, including remote access, built-in virus protection, replication and file deduplication. Johns said the bundles, the pricing of which starts at $10,000 and go up to $30,000,Microsoft Office 2007 Key, do not require extra license fees for networking protocols, file replication or snapshot capabilities.

"Data protection is understood to be crucial these days, and most little IT operations either don't have the skills and/or desire to do it themselves," Mark Peters, senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, told eWEEK.

"HP is really a soup-to-nuts IT vendor and is therefore all-but-compelled to have a DP offering at all levels from the IT pyramid. The market may consist of smaller customers, but there's a load more of them."

"I do think the HP brand counts for a lot and will garner market success for the Data Vault. The HP badge says 'trust' and recognition -- even when that's built on laser printers -- which is going to be a crucial decision factor for tiny business and SOHO's," Peters said.

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