HP Launches Storage Systems For Backup, Archiving

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HP on Tuesday unveiled new storage systems that aid data deduplication and the archiving of unstructured data. The HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup System is a deduplication appliance that scales to 768 TB of capacity. The HP X5000 G2 Network Storage System as a file storage appliance for Microsoft environments.

The HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup System is an example of what HP calls Deduplication 2.0. In this new phase, deduplication is federated to avoid the creation of silos of data caused by the use of multiple products and platforms. Deduplication 2.0 also offers massive scalability, the ability to rapidly restore data, and high availability so failures in backup do not affect service level agreements.

With the StoreOnce B6200 Backup System, capacity can grow from 48 TB to as much as 768 TB without downtime. In addition, the B6200 has an ingest rate of 24 TB per hour and an equivalent restore rate. The B6200 also uses an adaptive micro-chunking technology that is based on a variable 4-KB chunk size that uses a sliding windows algorithm for the type of data being deduplicated. This results in as much as 35:1 deduplication according to HP. The HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup System starts at $250,000 for a 48-TB configuration.

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The B6200 also has an automated restart that provides failover between nodes and restarts failed backups. To further its high-availability, HP supports replication from 384 devices in a fan-in configuration. To lessen costs, HP bundles source licenses for replication with remote devices.

HP has also built deduplication capability into its HP Data Protector backup software. HP Data Protector now includes a StoreOnce agent for end-to-end deduplication.

The company also introduced the HP X5000 G2 Networked Storage System, which is designed to store unstructured data. HP estimates that as much as 80% of this data is generated in Microsoft environments, so the two-node, active/active appliance with server blades uses Windows 2008 R2 with Microsoft Cluster Server. The appliance can support as many as 10,000 users and have 32 TB of storage capacity in a 3U-high configuration. It is expandable to more than 100 TB.

The appliance runs any Windows-compatible anti-virus product and has support with Microsoft System Center. It can be deployed as a DHCP, print, Web or backup server and works with a DFS-enabled namespace. It also supports SMB 2.1, FIPs 140-2 data encryption, and Active Directory. Also included is built-in snapshot and replication features to support point-in-time copies at both local and remote locations. The HP X5000 G2 Networked Storage System starts at $30,229.

Deni Connor is founding analyst for Storage Strategies NOW, an industry analyst firm that focuses on storage, virtualization, and servers.

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