Strong in storage

How are HP’s various storage/data centre acquisitions bedding in to the company’s portfolio?
All of the acquisitions that HP has made in the storage arena over the past few years have brought their own unique benefits and value – this includes LeftHand, Ibrix and of course 3PAR. Each and every one has been successfully integrated into the overall Converged Storage portfolio, along with ‘home-grown’ technologies such as those developed by HP Labs. As a result of continued focus and investment, they now form the basis of some of our most fundamental solution offerings and platforms for future growth.

And can we expect any more acquisitions in the coming months?
We can’t comment on any potential acquisitions, but of course we will continue to invest in the development of our Storage portfolio – in whatever form that might take.

In other words, are there any ‘gaps’ that you think HP has still to cover?
I believe that HP has never had as strong a storage portfolio as it does today. From entry-level up, we provide solutions that bring efficiency, agility and simplicity to organisations regardless of their size or current business challenges. Our ‘one architecture’ approach, spanning primary storage, data protection and back-up, and retention and analytics, ensures that all businesses enjoy the same benefits and rich features irrespective of size. A great example of this is the recent launch of HP Simply StoreIT, a program designed specifically to address the needs of small and midsize organisations, but featuring all of the manageability and efficiency benefits that you might normally only expect in the enterprise space.

What is HP’s play in the Cloud storage market? ie enabling the Channel to offer it and/or offering Cloud storage direct?
HP offers solutions for all cloud deployment models – private, public and hybrid – and all service models – IaaS, PaaS and SaaS – through its HP Converged Cloud solutions. Designed to work for companies at all stages of cloud maturity, these offerings are built on a common foundation of HP innovation and experience.
We offer cloud-based solutions both directly and through the channel, and we have also created the HP CloudAgile Service Provider Program to allow some of the world’s leading service providers to provide hosting, managed, and cloud-based services based on HP’s cloud technology. HP CloudAgile partners deliver a wide range of services, including dedicated hosting, hybrid cloud hosting, managed hosting, application specific hosting for mission-critical applications such as SAP, Email, and compliant services targeted at vertical industries segments, including healthcare, government, media and more.

Where is HP in terms of the SSD/Flash market right now?
This is a very timely question! Just a couple of weeks ago we announced our first All Flash array - the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450. It delivers unprecedented speed and performance – hundreds of thousands of IOPs at less than 1 millisecond – without compromising on the levels of resiliency, efficiency and disaster tolerance you would expect from an HP 3PAR system.

And how does this compare with some of the agile, SSD-only start-ups who have no legacy storage to integrate/protect?
There are advantages and disadvantages to working with specialised start-ups, but almost without exception these companies are seeking to be acquired, if they haven’t already. This presents its own level of risk, as it greatly depends on who they have been acquired by as to whether or not the appropriate levels of investment and focus will continue to be made. From a technology perspective, partnering with a vendor that has an established pedigree of providing holistic, converged solutions can offer cost, manageability and flexibility benefits that single product vendors simply cannot compete with.

Software Defined Storage – what’s the HP take on this?
HP was one of the first vendors to offer virtual storage in the form of the HP StoreVirtual VSA, (Virtual Storage Appliance).
There seem to be many different opinions on what software defined storage actually is, and as yet we don’t have an industry consensus. HP believes that software-defined storage:

· Allows users to support traditional and emerging enterprise application storage workloads
· Deploys on independent off-the-shelf, industry-standard hardware and hypervisors
· Eliminates the dependency on traditional storage hardware platforms
Our strategy is to grow our portfolio of VSAs across the Converged Storage portfolio, and we recently announced the HP StoreOnce VSA for backup and deduplication. StoreOnce is the only federated deduplication solution available today that overcomes the gaps, inefficiencies, and costs associated with fragmented, first-generation deduplication technologies. And now we can offer all of this in virtual form.

Big Data is one of the big topics right now – what is HP doing around this space?
HP has a wide variety of solutions designed to help customers with their big data challenges. As it specifically relates to storage, industry experts predict that the total volume of worldwide data will grow by more than 40 percent in the next 10 years. Also, most storage environments are doubling every 18 months. As well as exponential data growth, data types are also proliferating at a rapid rate. All of this means that first and foremost customers need visibility into their existing storage infrastructure, before they can translate that into a strategy that will enable them to not only cope with the demands of ‘Big Data’, but also support their long-term business objectives.

And do end users actually understand the idea of Big Data, or is education still needed?
In many ways, Big Data is not a new phenomenon. Every era of IT has been characterised by the need to deal with data growth and new data types. We might be at a point where the issue has reached critical mass, but one thing we can count on is that it will only intensify over time. Big Data is not just today’s problem, it was there yesterday and will still be here tomorrow. The danger is that organisations try to address Big Data as an isolated challenge, when in fact it is a symptom of a business environment that has to be agile and efficient enough to cope with whatever is thrown at it over the longer-term. It goes right to the heart of the data centre, and presents another compelling case for the converged approach.

Convergence – any thoughts on this in terms of storage specifically and the data centre more generally?
HP pioneered the converged infrastructure, and this philosophy underpins all of our technology. We strongly believe that convergence is the future of the data centre, as only through this approach can companies achieve the levels of efficiency, flexibility and manageability that today’s business environment demands. The promise of Converged Infrastructure is to establish a common, modern IT architecture that pools resources across servers, storage and networking. It should simplify IT with an integrated approach, so management is intuitive. Importantly, it must also integrate easily into the existing infrastructure and applications to accelerate time-to-application value while reducing costs. Many organisations are already realising this promise, as evidenced in the case study below.

The Channel – how is HP working with the Channel in this ‘new’ IT era?
As has been consistently emphasised by Meg Whitman, our CEO, the channel has never been more important to the future success of HP. This is true for all areas of the business, including Storage. HP has always led the market in terms of SMB storage solutions, and for this to continue we have to make sure that we are not only offering solutions that are affordable, reliable and simple, but that are also attractive to the channel to sell. As well as appealing margins and incentives, this also means offering solutions that allow channel partners to add value in the form of consultancy and support, and to build long-lasting relationships with their own end users.

And how do you see this relationship/The Channel evolving over time?
I see the relationship becoming even closer. Of course HP will continue to have direct relationships with end users, but the facts is organisations purchase and consume IT in many different ways, and most rely on the expertise and experience of partner in some form or another. It is HP’s job to ensure that we meet the technological and business needs of all current and potential customers, and that we enable it to be offered in the way that best suits them – whether that is through a service provider, a channel partner or directly from HP.