HDS kicks Hitachi-partner HP in the array

No HP added value in P9500 claim

A senior HDS blogger says HP has added no value to its OEM'd P9500 storage array and that its supposedly unique APEX storage service level software isn't unique at all: HDS does the same thing.

HDS (Hitachi Data Systems) is a wholly-owned Hitachi subsidiary responsible for selling and supporting Hitachi storage and server products outside Japan. In effect it resells the Hitachi-developed VSP enterprise storage array. This was announced as the replacement for the previous USP-V array in late September.

HP OEM'd this array and called it the P9500, only issuing half-inch drives and adding in APEX, Application Performance Extender software, which can set storage service delivery levels for applications using the P9500.

El Reg felt the force of HP's desire to assert its input into the VSP development process, with Simon Brassington, strategist at HP StorageWorks UK and Ireland, telling us: "Your description of [HP] 'slapping a label' on the VSP doesn’t do justice to the collaborative partnership that HP and HDS have enjoyed in developing these products over the last 12 years."

Mikkelsen emphatically asserts that the VSP and P9500 hardware is exactly the same underneath the covers. He says: "Make no mistake, they are the same piece of hardware… with the exception of a vendor-specific identifier, the microcode versions of the P9500 and VSP are exactly the same."

He then adds that HP's marketing campaign about APEX is a bit misleading, blogging: "HP’s claim of providing CPU prioritization capabilities is really misleading, which is why I didn’t think that much of APEX originally. APEX does provide a capability to prioritise CPU, cache and storage resources for a HPUX for Oracle applications, supported on HPUX only."

But "for APEX supported non-HPUX platforms such as Windows or Linux, only server and/or WWN prioritizations are supported – nothing different than what HDS has been doing with Server Priority Manager for many years."

"Bottom line – HDS has been talking storage performance-based SLA management for three years now, while HP is catching up and trying once again to position themselves as first to market."

Here we have a Hitachi reseller criticising a HItachi OEM, HP. Perhaps HP will get on to Hitachi and ask if it could muzzle its wholly-owned subsidiary in the interests of harmony. ®