Simplifying the management of multiple petabytes of data, HP announced a highly scalable storage system ideal for online and digital media businesses and comes at an affordable cost. The HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System (ExDS9100) addresses the requirements Web 2.0 and digital media firms by offering vast storage capacity and simplified, integrated management.

 

Designed for scaled environments, such as cloud computing, the ExDS9100 is the first in a series of HP solutions where services can be provided via the Internet. With the ExDS9100, customers can provide new online services or enhance existing offerings to drive new revenue streams with the help of an architecture that cost-effectively manages these environments. The HP ExDS9100 is a unified system consisting of three primary components — Performance block, Capacity block, and Software. The system is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2008.

 

These days, new services, such as photo sharing, streaming media, video on demand, and social networking, generate massive amounts of file-based data that needs to be stored, managed, and retrieved quickly and easily. Customers are looking for scalability with simplified management, ease of use, and all-in-one application support. There are similar demands from large enterprises in sectors such as oil and gas, security and surveillance, and genetic research. As of now, no other file-based network-attached storage (NAS) system, apart from ExDS9100, offers a single management interface while scaling to the multi-petabyte level, according to HP.

 

The ExDS9100 offers greater flexibility in matching capabilities to unique workloads, having been designed by HP to provision performance and capacity independently, unlike competing systems. This ensures that critical business applications are always available, despite evolving environments.

 

“As business requirements rapidly change and digital media files grow at exponential rates, many enterprises need to manage growth in a way that helps them profit from their storage infrastructure. That’s where the ExDS9100 really delivers,” said Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks, HP. “The ExDS9100 is the only complete hardware and software system that provides a flexible and affordable solution for customers with massive capacity needs.”