HP releases flexible storage Hybrid drive
HP releases flexible storage Hybrid drive
Hewlett Packard's new hybrid hard drive pushes the boundaries of storage technology because it combines Fibre Channel and ATA technologies.
This new drive will provide customers with the flexibility to divide data between low-cost and high-performance disk drives within a single storage system at a much cheaper rate.
It is designed specifically for enterprises and includes the reliability characteristics of high performing enterprise-class Fibre Channel disk drives. However, a wider range of businesses and organisations will be able to take advantage of these high standards now. It is ideal for reference data, archival and disk-to-disk backup.
It has been co-developed with HDD maker Seagate, and is suitable for a company struggling with ever increasing data which is looking for a cheaper way to store information without losing the reliability they are used to, without having to spend more money on storing this data if it is used less often.
For instance, it would be very useful in a hospital for storing records of a patient which are not currently in use. These records could be transported into a cheaper storage space until the records are required.
Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, network storage solutions, HP, said. "Customers are seeking less expensive storage solutions to store data that doesn't require enterprise-class input/output performance or is viewed as less critical to business operations These innovative new drives are designed to meet this need, offering greater storage capacity at a lower price point. This makes them very attractive to a broad range of storage applications and customers."
The fibre channel interface allows these new drives to be plugged directly into existing HP StorageWorks EVA drives, which provide dual ports to the drives, helping to avoid downtime for businesses that are experienced with single ported ATA drives.
Customers also do not need to convert from a Fibre Channel to SATA interface, or to a PATA (Parallel ATA) interface when they adopt HP's new hybrid.
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