Beirut, Lebanon -- HP today introduced several industry-first innovations for its Converged Storage portfolio to Lebanon, with new platforms that break through complexities and inefficiencies with a single architecture for all sizes of client deployments showcased at a launch event held in Lebanon.

Designed for virtualized, cloud and big data retention environments, the solutions launched at the Fours Seasons Beirut this morning include new HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, HP StoreAll Storage and HP StoreOnce Backup product offerings.

Many organizations waste as much as 70 percent of their budgets on capacity that is not actually storing data(1) while administrators struggle to manage dozens of disparate storage architectures. This creates a rigid sprawling infrastructure that often forces organizations to choose between features and affordability.

New hardware and software offerings increase enterprise agility

In 2011, HP announced Converged Storage to address legacy storage limitations exposed by the growth of human information, infrastructure convergence and the emergence of IT-as-a-Service data centers. The HP Converged Storage system vision is polymorphic simplicity. This is a new storage concept that enables a single-system architecture to exist in several forms, shapes and sizes from low to high, but retains common data services for block, object and file applications. This vision also calls for optimization for both hard disk drives (HDD) and solid state disks (SSD). Today, HP is expanding that portfolio to include:

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Storage is the industry's only midrange quad-controller platform offering Tier 1 storage availability and quality-of-service features at an easy entry price point for organizations.(2) Supporting both block and file data services, the system is available with HDD and SSD or as an all-SSD configuration capable of performing more than 320,000 input/output operations per second--2.4 times that of a similarly priced competitive array.(3)

HP StoreAll Storage, a highly scalable platform for object and file data access, provides a simplified environment for big data retention and cloud storage that reduces the need for additional administrators or hardware. HP StoreAll Express Query was created by HP Labs, the company's central research arm, and is a metadata database that allows clients to conduct search queries 100,000 times faster than previous file system search methods,(4) facilitating informed business decisions based on the most current data. Integration with HP Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) offloads processing tasks to HP StoreAll so that analytics can be rapidly performed with more current data and using less compute hardware. Additional integration with HP StoreAll and HP Autonomy Consolidated Archive, as well as certification of other independent software vendor applications, provides safe, long-term retention of digital assets.

HP StoreOnce 2000 and 4000 Backup, with support for HP StoreOnce Catalyst software, provides efficient data movement and high-performance deduplication to reduce data protection costs in remote sites and data centers. The new models perform backup operations up to three times faster at a 35 percent lower cost than the closest competitive system.(5)

"Legacy storage vendors across the Middle East are simply not equipped to help organizations respond to new workloads, and bolting on new features to old architectures has created a nightmare," said Walid Gomaa, Business Unit and Sales Manager, HP Storage Division, HP Middle East. "HP's unique set of Converged Storage innovations helps clients in Lebanon simplify infrastructure and reduce costs with a common architecture across storage segments and categories."

Improving client return on information, individuals and infrastructure

HP Converged Storage innovations help clients simplify storage infrastructure and respond to unpredictable demands while increasing the value organizations generate from their investments in three areas:

Return on information--by enabling better and quicker decisions with technologies such as embedded search and analytics to extract value from all types of information.

Return on infrastructure--by improving asset utilization through a polymorphic design and efficiency technologies to cut capacity needs in half.

Return on individuals--by providing common data services and centralized management across storage systems to reduce administration time and complexity.

HP also announced new services that help clients optimize their investment and create the right environment for their businesses. They include:

Technology services that help optimize HP StoreOnce performance and speed transition from HP Enterprise Virtual Array to HP 3PAR Storage.

The HP Financial Services Capacity on Demand program helps clients respond to unpredictable needs and instantly acquire storage beyond baseline capacity.

HP Storage Management Services integrate HP 3PAR StoreServ, HP StoreAll and HP StoreOnce Storage to offer HP's new storage technology to enterprise clients with systems management expertise and operational best practices.

Additional information about the new HP Converged Storage solutions is available at www.hp.com/go/storage/nextera.