HP Aims Business Continuity At SMBs

HP has unveiled a program aimed at helping small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) safeguard their data from a range of security and disaster threats.

The HP Business Protection portfolio offers business continuity for SMBs through security, data protection and features that ensure your high-priority applications and services will be available when you need them.

To stress the importance of continuity and disaster preparedness, HP cited a recent University of Texas study that found that 43 percent of companies that suffered catastrophic data loss due to disaster never reopened, while 51 percent closed within two years.

“After facing a security breach, IT threat or disaster, the survival of a smaller business often depends on how quickly it can recover,” stated Kevin
Gilroy, HP’s senior vice president and general manager of small and medium business.

HP aims its security approach at threats such as viruses, spyware, spam, intrusion attacks and outdated security protections. The data protection measures provide tools to capture, distribute and protect information automatically and back up and recover quickly. The availability services are designed to keep business systems running in event of disasters such as power outages, floods, mudslides, hurricanes and tornados.

“HP has thought this through completely, considering all the threats that could bring down a business and addressing data protection, IT security and availability,” said Chris Liebert, senior analyst for small and medium business strategies at the Yankee Group.

The new services and products include the HP Smart Desktop Management Service for data protection and security of networked PCs; an online SMB Security Solution Center for small business owners and partners to help them understand and choose security features to protect their businesses; and affordable, easy-to-use storage and server solutions for data protection and availability.

The new HP Smart Desktop Management Service offers off-site data protection, security and support for individual networked PCs for an introductory price of less than $20 per month per seat. The service delivers remote data backup and restore capabilities with enhanced security features. Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/clientprotection.

HP designed its data protection offerings not only to help SMBs with business continuity, but also to help them comply with laws and regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Europe’s Data Protection Act and Japan’s HPB 517 (similar to HIPAA).

Storage Plays A Roll
Following on the theme of protecting your business, HP offers the HP StorageWorks Ultrium 448 Tape Drive &#151 an entry-level drive &#151 as a way to backup and restore the data that’s crucial to your business. Starting at $2,199, the drive features HP’s “One-Button Disaster Recovery” feature. Compatible with entry-level and midrange HP ProLiant servers, the Ultrium 448 tape drive offers 400GB (compressed) capacity per data cartridge and backs up data at a rate of nearly 173 GB per hour.

Other backup and storage solutions include HP’s OpenView Storage Mirroring Software, which replicates data (in real time) between servers on a LAN. That means, for example, if you have a Web server that you need operational 24/7, you can set up a second server as a backup &#151 it stands at the ready, with all the current data constantly being replicated to it from the original Web server. Should the original server fail, the backup server automatically detects the failure and takes on the function of the Web server; your Web site won’t go down, and you don’t lose business.

For SMBs with computing tasks that require more power than one server can handle, HP offers the updated HP ProLiant DL380 Packaged Cluster. This lets you keep vital data available even during failures or during scheduled server maintenance. The package includes two servers and shared storage. Pricing starts at $10,449.

The HP offers an optional Integrated Lights-Out Advantage Pack that’s designed to provide remote access and lets you manage server power, the system console and system event logs, whether the server’s operating or not.

More information about the HP Business Protection solutions and services for SMBs is available at www.hp.com/go/BusinessProtection.

Look for more coverage on HP’s Business Protection for SMBs next week at SmallBusinessComputing.com.

Back To Enterprise Storage Forum

Adapted from enterprisestorageforum.com.

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