3PAR Gooses Its X

3PAR Inc. has added some pep to the system it began selling last June (see 3PAR Spins Disk Trick). And in the process, the startup hopes to nail more customers for its disk array system in its campaign against the big boys.

3PAR has introduced a new series of its InServ X-Series Storage Server disk array, one powered by dual 2,400MHz Intel Xeon processors that substantially improve 3PARs performance in benchmark tests. Specifically, 3PAR says the system delivers 100,045.7 input/output operations per second (IOPS) in benchmark tests, compared with 47,001.19 IOPS before (see X Marks the Spot for 3PAR).

Will the new zip help zap some sales? CEO Dave Scott says the system has already won 3PAR a new customer in U.K.-based market research company Research International. He hopes the upgrade will continue the momentum 3PAR achieved with its original provisioning system.

That system is based on what 3PAR calls thin provisioning, a twist on the capacity-on-demand or pay-per-use concept that requires customers to house more storage capacity than they need and pay for what they use. 3PAR lets users create virtual volumes on one of its systems without actually purchasing or installing the entire amount of disk storage.

For example, a database may be assigned a volume sized at 4 Tbytes, but the 3PAR system could have just 1 Tbyte of disk capacity in place if the application uses less than that. That actually encourages customers to buy less disk space -- something the SAN giants would never consider but that allows a startup to get a lower-cost foot in the door.The X-Series also includes templates to help manage applications, a system tuner that analyzes disk drives and relocates pieces of data that 3PAR calls “chunklets” [ed. note: eewww!] to alleviate bottlenecks, and a software application that uses snapshots to archive Microsoft Exchange data. Scott says the system’s hardware can be upgraded by swapping controller nodes.

Of course, 3PAR is racing against time as well as the major storage and server vendors. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ,), Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), along with storage giants EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), and Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) are all putting together the pieces of their well publicized utility computing strategies. (See EMC & McData Get Smart, IBM Seeks Suite Spot, Veritas Re-Lays 'Foundation', HP Enhances Servers and Storage, HP Tries Toll Plan for SMBs, Veritas Nabs Ejasent, and EMC Gobbles VMware.)

Still, thin provisioning has helped 3PAR land some blue-chip customers, as well as $32 million in funding in January (see 3PAR Pockets $32 Million). Making it faster can't hurt.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch