HP Taps PolyServe To Enhance NAS Offerings

Hewlett-Packard signed a deal this week to buy Beaverton, Ore. utility computing software vendor PolyServe.

HP says the purchase of its long time partner gives the vendor "a strong entry point" into the enterprise network-attached storage (NAS) arena by providing HP with software to provide NAS technology in blade server environments.The vendor also says PolyServe's software gives HP a consolidation platform for databases with exceptional performance and availability requirements.

The PolyServe software already works with HP ProLiant servers and HP's storage arrays to provide NAS in virtualized Linux and Windows environments. HP says the software allows data from file or database servers to be stored on a single, shared device or pool of storage systems that can easily scale up or back to meet changing enterprise storage requirements.

HP says its two-year partnership with PolyServe compelled the vendor to make the deal in order to speed its penetration into the rapidly growing blade server segment of the NAS market.

An HP spokesperson says the blend of the PolyServe software with its own HP StorageWorks, ProLiant, and BladeSystem technologies will provide the infrastructure companies need to merge previously isolated compartments of storage to create a more efficient and more cost-effective storage environment.

The deal is expected to close within 60 days. PolyServe employs 117 and claims to have more than 500 customers.