Storage: HP Introduces Powerful Combination of Fibre Channel Switch and SAN-Management Software for the Enterprise - HP SureStore E Switch F16 - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, May 10, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Company Wednesday introduced storage area network (SAN) hardware and software that support multivendor application server and storage platforms -- a demonstrable first step toward HP's commitment to meet growing customer demand for open SAN solutions.

The new products are part of the new HP SureStore E product family and they provide the foundation for the HP Equation intelligent-storage architecture. These new products include SAN-management software and a Fibre Channel switch. Open SANs promise customers the opportunity to solve key business problems while reducing storage-related costs through the increased competition and best-in-class pricing encouraged by storage-vendor choice.

"These new products underscore HP's drive to ensure customers have access to the strongest set of storage solutions for their organizations," said Bill Russell, chief operating officer and executive vice president of HP's Enterprise Computing Solutions. "SANs hold tremendous possibilities for enterprise customers, and we intend to deliver the full benefit of SANs with a product family that is open, scalable and reliable to support the new e-services(1) economy."

The HP SureStore E products announced Wednesday include the following: * HP SureStore E Storage Node Manager -- the industry's first management software to discover, map and monitor storage devices, fabric devices and server host-bus adapters across a SAN. This software, based on HP OpenView's core management technology, delivers the highest-possible levels of reliability, scalability and manageability for enterprise-class SAN implementations.

* HP SureStore E Switch F16 -- a high-bandwidth, 16-port, multiplatform Fibre Channel switch that interconnects all components of a SAN, including the HP SureStore E portfolio and EMC Symmetrix. The switch supports MC/ServiceGuard and Microsoft(R) Cluster Server for use in mission-critical environments. It can be cascaded with other switches or hubs at distances up to 10km for superior disaster recovery and supports HP's Fibre Channel-SCSI bridge to bring legacy SCSI devices, such as HP tape libraries and Storage Tek tape silos, into a SAN. The switch also supports backward compatibility for Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop hub-based SANs to protect existing investments in host-bus adapters and hubs, while offering the price/performance benefits of mixed hub and switch networks.

HP also announced plans to deliver a future HP SureStore E server-less SAN backup solution that will be integrated with HP OpenView OmniBack II and Legato NetWorker. This is an important capability that will enable customers to offload even more tasks from business-critical application servers and local area networks (LANs) by allowing tape devices to back up disk subsystems directly across the SAN, requiring no LAN bandwidth and consuming far fewer application server cycles.

"HP is committed to delivering intelligent enterprise-storage management, and we are working diligently to ensure a smooth stress-free transition for customers who are ready to migrate from conventional, direct-connect or centralized storage environments to high-performance SANs," said Marilyn Edling, general manager of HP's Enterprise Storage Business Unit. "The HP SureStore E product line and HP Equation storage architecture will provide customers with the foundation for an enterprise-computing utility with the high availability and extreme capacity necessary to support the emerging world of e-services."

Pricing and Availability Product availability and pricing varies. Product-specific information is available from HP sales representatives or authorized HP resellers.

Information about HP's enterprise-storage products and services can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.enterprisestorage.hp.com.

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services. HP had computer-related revenue of $39.5 billion in its 1998 fiscal year.

HP plans to launch a new company ("NewCo") consisting of its industry-leading test-and-measurement, components, chemical-analysis and medical businesses. These businesses represented $7.6 billion of HP's total revenue in fiscal 1998. With leading positions in multiple market segments, this technology-based company will focus on high-growth opportunities such as communications and life sciences.

HP has 122,800 employees worldwide and had total revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

(1) e-services -- HP envisions a world in which people and businesses derive new value from the Internet by moving beyond Web-based access to information to a world in which a rich array of nimble, modular electronic services, e-services, are accessible by virtually anyone and any device. HP has been working to solve the technical challenges that such a world presents -- inventing the devices and technologies that provide access, building the back-end systems that support the billions of Internet transactions generated, and developing the software that ensures information always is protected. As the steward of distributed open systems, HP understands how to build this new open-services marketplace and will lead this next logical evolution of the Net, working closely with world-class partners.