HP expands smart office portfolio to enhance business protection for SMBs in Middle East

The new HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express and HP StorageWorks MSA 1510i are just the latest additions to HP's Smart Office strategy to deliver smart technology, advice and services from HP and its more than 145,000 worldwide channel partners to companies that want to spend less time on technology and more time focused on their businesses.

"SMB customers across the Middle East know that when they choose HP, they get easy-to-use products and services designed for their specific needs, along with the local expertise and support they require," said Anil Gandhi, General Manager, Personal Systems Group (PSG) HP Middle East. "Through the HP Smart Office portfolio, HP delivers value and simplicity so customers can use technology to grow their businesses."

The HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express is the first low-cost software application tailored to help SMBs easily manage the backup and recovery of business data. Backup and recovery scheduling, media management and reporting can be complicated tasks which often require specialized IT support. The Data Protector Express graphical user interface (GUI) simplifies these tasks, and works across Windows®, Netware and Linux environments, eliminating the need for separate software tools for each platform.

Typically used for environments with one to ten servers with up to one terabyte of data, the HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express is a user-installable product that can go from 'box to backup' in a matter of minutes. Able to securely store information on any media, including tape, disk or CD/DVD, it uses the same three-tier architecture as the enterprise-scale HP OpenView Storage Data Protector. This feature is unique for an SMB product and provides increased performance and robustness (vs two-tier architectures).

The new HP StorageWorks MSA 1510i array for IP based Storage Area Networks (SAN) enables mid-size businesses to ensure their data storage keeps pace with the rapid growth of business-critical information. An iSCSI or IP SAN delivers a simple, efficient solution that allows customers to easily implement and manage a SAN just as they do their existing Ethernet network.

In addition, customers can take their internal disks directly out of existing HP ProLiant servers and move them into the MSA 1510i, an industry exclusive, which results in lower risk when a customer is moving from direct attached storage to external storage.

In addition, HP recently added the new HP ProLiant DL100 G2 Data Protection Storage Server to its Business Protection portfolio. The ProLiant DL100 is an easy-to-deploy bundled appliance that provides rapid, near-continuous data protection and operational simplicity for disk-based backup of Windows file servers. The server, storage and software bundle reduces data loss through hourly backup, eliminates the possibility for user errors and minimizes IT overhead through enablement of the end-user file recovery.

HP's new Business Protection portfolio of offerings for the Middle East follows an interactive, highlevel, roundtable discussion on the importance of business protection for smaller businesses.