Additionally, Data Protector Express is integrated with the HP tape drives OBDR (One-Button Disaster Recovery) utility, which enables customers to restore a servers operating system, software applications and data simply by pressing a button and following the onscreen instructions.
Click here to read about HPs latest ILM products.
Data Protector Express, in conjunction with OBDR, can provide system recovery in less than one hour, Thew said.
All of HPs tape drives and tape autoloaders now ship with Data Protector Express Single Server Edition software. Customers can also download Data Protector Express ProLiant Edition at zero incremental cost to protect any new or installed HP ProLiant server, Thew said.
IDC storage analyst Robert Amatruda told eWEEK that "HP is basically taking [virtual tape] technology that has been used on mainframes for some time and making it available for open systems users.
"That way, the medium-size business owner gets the look, feel, smell and performance of a high-end tape storage system for much less cost. HP really understands the customers needs here and is supplying some excellent products to fill that need," Amatruda said.
McAdam said she thought HP has packaged the new offerings well for the SMB owner, who normally dont have a lot of infrastructure already in place.
"All storage vendors realize that the SMB market is growing at a much larger rate than the enterprise market," McAdam wrote eWEEK via e-mail. "What is unique about HPs offerings is that they package everything together in a nice bundle.
By way of example, McAdam mentioned that HP has put together three tape storage media kits to ensure that small and midsize companies have all the storage media products they need. Each media kit contains a full complement of HP storage media, a storage media case to transport or store cartridges, a cleaning cartridge, tape labels, an evaluation copy of Data Protector Express, and a guide to creating successful tape backups.
McAdam also confirmed that the data protection market for SMBs is rapidly growing.
"Large enterprises customers have always understood that they must be able to quickly back up and restore their data. SMB customers also knew this, but there were not that many choices before. Now, with offerings such as these from HP, SMB customers have more, and very affordable, options," McAdam said.
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