HP Adds New Servers, Storage, Software to SMB Catalog

With little fanfare, Hewlett-Packard used the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere on June 21 to roll out some fresh additions to its small- and medium-size business data center catalog.

The new products include servers, storage arrays, a networking switch and software upgrades. None of these products is particularly ground-breaking in their IT, but they are designed for smaller businesses that do not require high-end enterprise functionality. Naturally, they are also priced accordingly.

Key offerings announced June 21 in HP's newly expanded SMB portfolio include:

• ProLiant ML110 G7 and HP ProLiant DL120 G7 application servers. Although these servers include enterprise-class management software, HP has installed Intel's Xeon i3 Core chips for them, which are not optimized for virtualization. These are basic-use app servers intended for dedicated applications for small and medium businesses.
  
  
• A standards-based HP V1810-48G switch and the HP V1410 switch series: These feature energy-saving attributes and are engineered for reliability in networking. The V1810-48G is a 48-port Web-managed switch that is limited to the 100Mb/s standard and not the 1GbE Ethernet, which is the most popular on retail switches. The V1410 follows the newest IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard that helps to lower power usage based on usage. The V1410  can detect the length of the attached networking cables and then "decide" how much electricity it needs to deliver.
  
  
• The P2000 G3 Modular Smart Array: HP said that this is among the industry's first entry-level storage packages to support the VMware API for Array Integration (VAAI) in addition to HP Insight Control Storage Module Manager for VMware vCenter.
  
  
• HP PC Backup Services (PCBS): This is a new service designed to ensure that midsize businesses and large enterprises have access to important data in the event of an outage, corrupted data or a lost or stolen PC.
  
  
• HP Business Risk Mitigation (BRM) and HP Branch Office Consolidation (BOC) also help SMBs reduce the risks of business disruptions.
  
  
• HP Business Decision Appliance and HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance: These are enhanced business intelligence software packages aimed at midsize organizations that need to mine customer data.
  

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP also said it has added 40 new training centers to its global HP Learning Initiative For Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE) program. The initiative helps coach micro-enterprises and SMBs to create new revenue streams, the company said.

All of the new products can be ordered now and will be available for delivery in the next few weeks.