Cloud and Storage News Abound

GoGrid LLC announced a new enterprise hosted private cloud solution, while Cisco Systems, Inc. outlined its enterprise cloud strategy. Additionally, EMC Corp. announced a slew of new storage systems, as well as upgrades to its high-end storage array. Finally, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) announced that it will discontinue the Neoview data warehousing platform. The vendor also unveiled four new business intelligence (BI) offerings built in partnership with Microsoft Corp.

Focal Points:

• GoGrid rolled out GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud, a solution that enables enterprises to integrate hosted dedicated hardware with GoGrid's public cloud service. According to the vendor, users can leverage the public cloud to add capacity for applications running on the private cloud. GoGrid can add a large-scale hardware implementation for a customer in a day, while users can automatically deploy individual virtual machines themselves, said GoGrid. France Telecom SA's Orange is currently piloting the solution, and is one of the first customers to use it. Separately, Cisco discussed that its cloud strategy centers on the network. Cisco aims to provide the "essential architecture," including core networking gear, endpoints, security tools, and the unified computing systems. Moreover, Cisco plans to build application programming interfaces (APIs) into "every networkable device" the vendor sells. These APIs would enable automation, management, and provisioning duties, Cisco added. 
• EMC made a bevy of storage-related product announcements. The vendor has upgraded its high-end VMAX Symmetrix array, adding 55 new features and doubling its performance. The VMAX can now scale from 48 to 2,400 drives and 2 petabytes of capacity, and can encrypt data natively on its drives, EMC said. Additionally, it can perform key management down to a single disk via EMC's RSA software, and offers live migration of data between arrays. EMC also rolled out a product line that combines EMC midrange Clariion storage area network (SAN) and Celerra network attached storage (NAS) systems. It includes three models – the new entry-level VNXe for under $10,000 and the VNX5000 and VNX7500. EMC said it is releasing seven VNX products in total, ranging from two versions of the VNXe to the midrange VNX 5000 and 7000 series, which includes the VNX5100, VNX5300, VNX5500, VNX5700, and VNX7500. In addition, EMC announced the first rebranded, clustered NAS products from its Isilon Systems acquisition. EMC announced S, X, and NL series of Isilon arrays, or nodes, but did not offer any further details. Lastly, the company unveiled new Data Domain devices, the DD890 and DD860 single controller systems, plus a new Global Deduplication Array (GDA) based on two clustered DD890 controllers and the Data Domain Archiver for long-term data retention.
• HP has decided to "stop actively selling" Neoview less than four years after introducing it to the market. The vendor also said that it will continue to work with partners in addressing BI requirements. HP did not provide information on plans for existing Neoview customers, or how long the company will continue to support them. In related news, HP announced four BI offerings that it has built in partnership with Microsoft. These include HP Business Decision Appliance, a system that performs BI duties running on SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint 2010, and the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance, which runs SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse software, said HP. Pricing for the HP Business Decision Appliance is around $28,000; licenses for SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint 2010 are separate, according to HP. The Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance is due out in June. Other new offerings include HP E5000 Messaging system running Exchange Server 2010; and the HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance, due out in the second half of this year, running SQL Server 2008 R2 along with Hyper-V Cloud. The HP E5000 Messaging System is due out in March and will start at $36,000, excluding the licensing for Exchange Server 2010, HP added.

Experton Group believes Cisco’s cloud strategy is a logical extension of its data center architecture and will assist in seamlessly binding hybrid clouds built on Cisco’s architecture. The GoGrid offering is a different twist on hybrid cloud environments and will be viewed favorably by those that see this as an enhancement to collocation services. EMC revamped their storage lines with a number of leading edge offerings; it also simplified mid-tier storage by combining the NAS and SAN storage solutions into a single product line. The new Data Domain (DD) devices include a number of software capabilities that enhance the value of the offering and indicate that the Data Domain arrays will become the EMC server side choice for all archiving and backup requirements. EMC hopes that the DD Archiver will finally put a nail in the coffin for tape. Experton Group believes that tape will be around still for the foreseeable future. HP’s discontinuance of Neoview, which was ex-CEO Mark Hurd’s brainchild, is not a surprise. The product line never gained great acceptance and HP needed to find a way to garner a bigger share of the BI marketplace. Thus, the HP-Microsoft partnership for BI offerings is a natural addition to the set of other partnership solutions. While this is a good move for HP, it does not put the vendor on par with the major BI players. HP still has a lot of catch up to do before it can be recognized as a leading BI provider. IT executives should keep in mind that Cisco and EMC (along with VMware Inc.) are working together to offer complete data center solutions that can help IT executives transform their data centers into high performance, lower cost facilities. One-stop shops are de rigueur for the major players and IT executives can expect to see additional acquisitions, as the vendors fill out their offering gaps. Moreover, since software is a major key to completing the puzzle, IT executives should expect HP, under its new leadership, to be making a number of software purchases and to eventually change its business model.