HP made a wide range of updates to its small and midsize business
(SMB) portfolio, highlighted by two new entry-level servers and
expanded VMware support for its P2000 storage line.
The ProLiant ML110 G7 server is intended for smaller firms with
limited IT resources and everyday office needs, while the ProLiant
DL120 G7 is a step up for growing SMBs with heavier application
requirements. The DL120 features two PCI Express slots for
expandability. Both units run on Intel Xeon processors.
On the storage front, HP has added VMware vStorage APIs for Array
Integration (VAAI) support to the P2000 G3 Modular Smart Array
(MSA); previously VAAI integration was only available with HP's
enterprise storage products. According to Britt Terry, worldwide
marketing manager for P2000, the addition enables administrators to
clone virtual machines 64 percent faster. HP also touts a 73
percent improvement in the time to deploy VMs by shifting the
initialization tasks to the MSA controller instead of the storage
area network and VMware server.
"All indicators we have, virtualization is a big trend," Terry said
in an interview. "There's so much advantage in being able to manage
machines as a pool with golden copies, rather than as a whole bunch
of individual machines."
The P2000 has also added a 3-TB SAS drive, bringing the maximum
configurable capacity to 288 TB. Terry said that the P2000 has
found particular traction with SMBs distributed across multiple
remote or branch offices.
HP's SMB parade also includes two data management and analysis
appliances aimed primarily at midmarket firms, as well as new
switches and data-backup services. The company also announced an
expanded financial commitment to its HP LIFE entrepreneurship
program.
Jim Ganthier, VP of marketing for industry-standard servers and
software, called the SMB market "very important to HP" in an
interview. "It's growing very, very quickly compared to other
markets," Ganthier said.
The HP rollout continues the wave of Goliath vendors launching
server and storage products for David-size businesses. Last week,
Lenovo added a USD 499 first-server unit to its ThinkServer line.
Earlier in the year, Dell produced two entry-level servers and has
likewise made a big SMB storage push, largely through
acquisitions.
Recent IDC research on 2011 IT spending by SMBs showed a trend
among small businesses, in particular, of stepping up to a first
server earlier in the company lifecycle than in years past. The
adoption point traditionally came around the 50-employee mark,
according to IDC analyst Justin Jaffe, but lately it's occurring
with as few as 10 people on staff. That's in part due to the
increasing number of budget-conscious servers available. Pricing
for the HP ProLiant ML110 G7 starts at USD 710, while the DL120 G7
unit begins at USD 793.