Hello,

In my last blog, I talked about virtualization and a new storage array. I just learned about an interesting test and wanted to talk more about it today.

Virtualisation has been a hot topic lately fueled by the popularity of server virtualisation. Storage virtualisation isn’t a new topic either. In fact, HP was one of the first vendors to offer virtualized disk arrays back in 1994. But a lot of confusion is out there over storage virtualisation – confusion that has been intensified by vendor hype. The vendor hype has in general over-promised and under-delivered.

I like what one industry analyst has said about storage virtualisation. According to John Webster, principal IT advisor at analyst firm Illuminata, "The single most important attribute of any storage virtualization solution is the ability to mask complexity and thereby make manageable that which is increasingly becoming unmanageable.”

The StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (or EVA) was designed to do exactly that – mask complexity. With the pricing of the new EVA4400 coming in up to 20% less than the EVA4100, we felt we had to do a better job of proving that indeed the EVA simplifies the management tasks of an administrator. We knew the lower pricing would spur interest by midsize customers who may have not considered the EVA family before.

Working with a third party, we brought several customers and their channel partner to Houston, Texas to put our ease of use claims to the test versus the DELL/EMC CX3-10 array. The customers had limited or no experience with midrange arrays from either vendor. While we weren’t surprised by the results, we were very pleased that these customers confirmed what we already knew about the EVA4400. You can read the paper titled “EVA4400 Challenge: Competitive Testing of Common Storage Administrative Tasks by The Edison Group “ or watch the HP StorageWorks EVA4400 challenge video. Let me just say that compared to traditional arrays like the CX3-10, the EVA will save you time and time is money!

If you thought storage virtualisation was only a technology for large enterprise customers, I think now would be a good time for you to reconsider, especially if you find that your storage capacity is growing and you need a solution that will simplify management of storage yet allow you to grow.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or if you have any comments.

Warm regards,

Urs