Blade technologies target midsize data centers

Aiming for what it calls the “Global 500,000” of midsize companies, Hewlett Packard (www.hp.com) has introduced a new line of data center products, solutions and services designed to help businesses accelerate growth and reduce operating costs.

Highlighting the launch is “Shorty,” the BladeSystem c3000 enclosure for smaller technology sites, branch offices and remote locations. The enclosure requires no special power, cooling, or staff, providing the benefits of a fully bladed environment.

Hewlett Packard’s BladeSystem c3000 enclosure for smaller technology sites, branch offices and remote locations requires no special power, cooling, or staff, and provides the benefits of a fully bladed environment.

The rack-based c3000 features a compact 10.5-inch-high design that fits up to eight blades, plugs into a standard 110- or 220-volt wall outlet, and provides simplified network connection. The tower version of the c3000, expected to be available in the first quarter of 2008, is outfitted with the same features and will require only two square feet of floor space.

“Building the right solution at a smaller site often presents bigger challenges than those of a large data center,” says Valerie Reamer, president, Gekkotek Inc. (www.gekkotek.com), an HP channel partner. “Midsize customers have big expectations for customization [that] are often tempered by restrictions of time, budget, power and staff.”

The c3000 is compatible with the existing line of HP BladeSystem c-Class servers and connectivity options. It also supports the HP ProLiant, Integrity and StorageWorks server and storage blades.

“For the first time, customers with space and IT staffing constraints can take advantage of the business benefits that a bladed infrastructure delivers,” says Ann Livermore, executive vice president for HP’s Technology Solutions Group. “The c3000 is a ‘deploy anywhere, do anything’ infrastructure that is easy to manage and architected for growth.”

Meanwhile, the StorageWorks All-in-One SB600c Storage Blade has been designed to work in both the new c3000 and the existing BladeSystem c7000. It helps customers protect their businesses with simplified backup, archiving, and disaster recovery capabilities. HP says it is the only storage blade solution that delivers bladed network-attached storage, iSCSI SAN capabilities, and data protection in a single device.

Additionally, HP has released new application “blueprints,” called HP Solution Blocks, which are designed to simplify and accelerate the integration of multiple application and data protection solutions into the c3000 enclosure.

“Midsize customers don’t want watered down enterprise solutions,” concludes Livermore. “They want complete solutions built uniquely to address their needs.