HPE enhances its server and storage portfolio

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced server and storage innovations to help small- and mid-sized businesses (SMB) strike the right balance of hybrid IT today and as they grow, including solutions that provide a future-proof and risk-free path from entry to private cloud.

Resource-constrained SMBs are increasingly embracing a hybrid mix of on-premise and cloud infrastructure to help provide agility and efficiency as they grow. To support the right mix, HPE has announced enhancements to its leading HPE StoreEasy Storage family, including integrated cloud backup with Microsoft Azure as well as an expansion to the HPE ProLiant Easy Connect hybrid cloud platform and HPE Flex Solutions.

In addition, new enhancements to flash-ready HPE StoreVirtual 3200 Storage give even the most budget-constrained customers the ability to scale their storage up, out and across to meet changing business needs while also supporting a diverse set of unified file and block workloads – a first for the entry storage market.

HPE has enhanced the StoreEasy Storage portfolio through new configurations featuring the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2016 Standard Edition operating system, the latest Intel Xeon processors, and high-speed memory. These new platforms provide enhanced de-duplication and compression to maximize usable space, include built-in tools to simplify capacity expansion and deliver new security and cloud-based protection features to reduce risk.

Already, the densest 2U NAS appliance on the market, new 10TB drive bundles provide 25-per cent greater density, allowing the HPE StoreEasy 1650. Expanded to scale up to 280 TB of internal capacity in just 2U, so more data can be consolidated without additional hardware. System administrators and HPE channel partners can configure automatic notifications and recommendations when it is time to add capacity to the system. Once the new drives arrive, the system provides a best practices-based provisioning tool that optimizes for capacity and/or performance.

Combining the flexibility and scalability of the cloud with the security and control of on-premises IT, HPE has expanded the ProLiant Easy Connect family with the new HPE ProLiant Easy Connect ML110 Managed Hybrid Server. With support for up to 150 SMB users per site at any number of sites, the solution allows customers to maintain the right mix of cloud-based applications and on-premises control for business growth, more complex workloads and expansion to remote sites. Subscribers can purchase flexible subscription services based on 8, 10 or 14 HPE ProLiant ML 110 Gen9 Server cores, allowing businesses to grow without adding IT specialists, compromising security or giving up cloud flexibility.

HPE has refreshed its Flex Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server featuring new hybrid flash HPE MSA 2042 Storage systems and support for Microsoft SQL Server 2016. These HPE Flex Solutions are lab-tested and verified across servers, storage and networking using Microsoft SQL Server software to ensure performance-tuned, reliable and cost-effective solutions to address SMB needs.

First introduced in August 2016, the HPE StoreVirtual 3200 is a next-gen alternative to traditional entry storage systems that lack the architectural flexibility to accommodate rapidly- changing business needs. The flash-ready HPE StoreVirtual 3200 is the industry’s first storage array to use 64-bit ARM processors and is based on the same software-defined storage (SDS) operating system deployed over 200,000 times in HPE’s StoreVirtual VSA and Hyperonverged systems. This portfolio of StoreVirtual-based SDS solutions provides a future-proof and risk-free path from entry to private cloud. HPE StoreVirtual 3200 now supports 10GBase-T interconnects, allowing customers to reduce networking costs up to 40 per cent by running 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections from hosts to storage over standard twisted-pair copper infrastructure already widely deployed within most IT environments.

HPE StoreVirtual 3000 File Controller expands the capabilities of the HPE StoreVirtual 3200 system to serve both structured and unstructured data needs from the same pool of capacity. The StoreVirtual 3000 File Controller enables file shares to be created in minutes with native Windows integration and full compatibility with Microsoft Windows Dynamic Access Controls.

Customers can reduce costs with advanced data services like sub-file de-duplication and compression for up to 60-per cent capacity savings. Support for up to 2,000 concurrent connections allows customers to easily consolidate end-user file access while integration with Microsoft Work Folders on user devices enables anywhere, anytime access to files and eliminates the cost and risk associated with un-sanctioned file sync and share services.