* HP announces storage blade for its BladeSystem servers
HP last week launched a storage blade for attachment to its BladeSystem servers.
The StorageWorks SB40c blade lets users add as much as 876GB of storage capacity to each of HP’s 10U (17.5-inch) high BladeSystem C-class chassis. The drives consist of Serial Attached SCSI or Serial ATA storage. Each chassis can house six storage blades, each with a capacity of 146GB.
The storage blade connects directly to the server blade, not to the chassis backplane. It is designed for file and print, messaging and databases.
The blade operates as direct-attached storage rather than as network-attached storage. It provides RAID capability for fault-tolerance and uses the SmartArray P400 controller.
The storage blade is managed via HP’s System Insight Manager and its Integrated Lights Out tools.
Individual storage blades are expected to be available this month for $1,600.
HP tied with IBM in the blade server market this year. Although IBM announced a storage blade last year, the company has yet to ship one. Revenue from blades increased almost 30% according to IDC, with IBM holding 39.5% of the market and HP with 38.9%.
