Hello Friends:

NewsWire subscribers Donna Garverick and Bill Lancaster asked and replied
on the supportability of SSA disk topology for HP 3000s. We talked about
this with Vicky Symonds, CSY's Solution Team manager for datacenter
storage, then posted the following to subscribers in our Aug. 6 OnlineExtra
e-mail from the HP World show:

We had heard the faster, lower-cost IBM technology, already ported for
MPE/iX, would be ready for HP's strategy. It may be a while longer, since
HP already has ties with EMC for RAID on the 3000, and FibreChannel in the
wings.

"We don't necessarily bless it, but we accept it," Symonds said. "We are
still evaluating it in terms of our overall solutions, and being careful
about not having too much contention within the solutions we're trying to
provide."

Bill Lancaster commented:

"Personally, I would be reluctant to use SSA on an MPE system until HP
sends a clearer, stronger signal indicating their willingness to fully
support the product."

It would appear that some of HP's hesitance revolves around positioning SSA
in the 3000 solutions lineup. SSA looks like it overlaps a good deal of the
functionality and price/performance of the Model 10 and Model 20 EMC RAID
units. And that EMC alliance is dear to CSY's heart.

Important to note: FibreChannel won't surface until Year 2000 on HP 3000s.
Details on that in the September NewsWire.

We'll also have more SSA details from Symonds in an upcoming NewsWire.
She's become the HP 3000's Product Marketing Manager, the first full-time
one in two years, and reports to Roy Breslawski. One of her charges is
Kriss Rant, the new Alliance Development Manager hunting down HP 3000
software suppliers. Rant's new mission will be detailed in our October
issue.


Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 NewsWire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP 3000
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