HP today unveiled major enhancements to the HP StorageWorks Modular SAN Array 1000 that drive down the cost of entry-level storage area network (SAN) solutions and broaden support for customers with heterogeneous server environments. The MSA1000 is a modular, entry-level Fibre Channel storage array that enables companies to easily move from direct-attach storage (DAS) to SANs as the foundation of a company's adaptive infrastructure, increasing a business's ability to quickly and efficiently respond to change. In its second year of availability, the MSA1000 now supports multi-cluster servers to simplify storage management and increase utilization of storage resources. HP has doubled the maximum capacity to six terabytes (TB) and improved performance by up to 80 percent over the previous version with the availability of larger, faster drives and enhanced firmware. Additionally, a three-port embedded hub option delivers significant cost and space savings, easing entry into SAN and clustered environments. The MSA1000 is the only array in the industry to protect investment in disk while enabling an extremely cost-effective migration to SANs by offering a DAS-to-SAN capability. This allows customers to easily migrate drives, including the associated data, directly out of an HP ProLiant environment to the MSA1000. "HP is the clear leader in SANs, and we have raised the bar in the entry-level market with this enhanced version of the HP StorageWorks MSA1000," said Howard Elias, senior vice president and general manager, HP Network Storage Solutions. "This array continues to meet customer needs for the easiest and lowest-cost DAS-to-SAN transition. In addition, we have expanded the ability to deploy the MSA1000 in demanding, heterogeneous environments." In its first year, the MSA1000 shipped more than 6,500 TB of capacity. Recent additions to the MSA1000 customer base include: New Zealand Defense, PeopleSoft, Province of British Columbia Common IT Services, State of Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and United States Postal Service Advanced Computer Environment. "It was imperative that we invest in a turnkey solution with unlimited scalability and total redundancy," said Richard Hitchcock, national LAN manager, G6 Land Command, New Zealand Defense. "Our HP solution meets these goals and positions us for the future. We achieved a manageable, scalable and fault-tolerant SAN that meets our strategic direction for the next five years." Second-year Enhancements The HP StorageWorks MSA1000 now provides a higher level of data availability through multi-cluster support in heterogeneous environments. It delivers greater flexibility in the number of clusters, allows mixing of clusters with individual nodes and permits concurrent access by hosts with different operating systems. In addition, the MSA1000 supports up to 42 hot-pluggable, 146-GB universal disk drives for a maximum capacity of six terabytes. The MSA1000 has the lowest price of an entry-level SAN array from any major vendor. The MSA1000 is now available with an optional three-port embedded hub or an MSA Fabric Switch 6. These options provide extremely low-cost Fibre Channel SAN connectivity, further reducing the cost of SAN deployment. Additional enhancements include: support for concurrent access to an MSA1000 by servers running Windows(R), NetWare and Linux operating systems as well as support for hot-plug additions of new drive enclosures and server clusters. Existing MSA1000 customers have access to the additional functionality through firmware upgrades at no cost, highlighting HP's commitment to providing technology that grows with an enterprise's adaptive infrastructure requirements.