HP is hosting it’s Discover conference this week and converged is the word.

HP’s Converged System for Virtualization comes in two primary flavors: CS300 and the CS700.

The CS300 is a rack mount solution that targets VMware environments of 50 – 300 virtual servers. The CS300 is based on the foundation of ProLiant DL380p and the StoreVirtual VSA. The CS300 is available in a Standard and Performance options and 3 servers is the minimum which can be expanded to 8 servers

	Standard	Performance
Component	Detail	Detail
Rack Mount Server	DL380p Gen8 – Qty. 3	DL380p Gen8 – Qty. 3
Processors	2x E5-2640 v2 (2.0GHz/8-core)	2x E5-2680 v2 (2.8GHz/10-core)
Memory	96GB	192GB
Switches	Two (2) 2920-48G	Two (2) 5900AF-48G

 

The CS700 is the enterprise solution for enterprise data centers. The CS700 is a bladed solution based on ProLiant BL460c and 3Par StoreServer 7200 technology. Like the CX300 is this a VMware solution and provides for 100-1000 VMs.

The various components are:

Virtualization Server
Component	Detail
Blade Server	BL460c Gen 8 E5-v2-Flexible Qty. 4 – 16
Blade Enclosure	c7000 Platinum Enclosure
BladeSystem Interconnect	Redundant HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10GB/24 – port Modules
Processors	2 x BL460c Gen8 E5-2650 v2 (2.6GHz/8-core) configuration
Memory	256GB
DAS Storage	Two 300GB
IO Options	FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 554FLB

 

Management Server
Component	Detail
Server	DL360p Gen8 – Qty. 2
Processor	2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 v2 (3.0 GHz/10-core)
Memory	256GB
DAS Storage	Eight 300 GB 15K SAS drives
Storage Controller	HP Smart Array P420i with 2 GB FBWC HP 82Q 8Gb Dual Port FC Host Bus Adapter
Network Controller	HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLR-SFP+ Adapter HP Ethernet 1GB 4-port 331T Adapter
DVD-ROM Drive	Included
Power	Dual 750W Platinum Power Supplies

 

Infrastructure
Component	Detail
Fiber Channel switching	Flat SAN (No SAN Switch – Direct-Attach to FlexFabric Modules and DL360 Mgmt Servers)
Network switching	2 Redundant 5920AF-24XG switches utilizing IRF technology 2 Load Balancing 5120-24G EI switches for iPDU/iLO/OA
Network cabling	Variable – based on length/transceiver requirements and datacenter uplink connections
Rack	HP 42u 1075mm Intelligent Rack
Power – HP Intelligent PDU	ISS components add feature advantage (only BL/DL/Enclosure) Storage and Network components do not take advantage of features but still allow for power control on per outlet basis

 

Storage
Component	Detail
Storage Type/Controller Count	StoreServer 7200 – 2 Node
Drive Type	300GB 6G SAS 15K 2.5 HDD
Drive Counts	36 – 144 (Starter plus expansion kits)
Drive Cages	Five M6710 SAS Drive Enclosures
Management	2PAR Physical Server Processor

 

HP is aiming these solutions at two distinct markets. SMB trying to compete with the hyper-converged products from SimpliVity and Nutanix. At the other end taking on VCE and others.

It will be interesting if these products will be innovative enough to compete with the smaller more nimble technology solutions at one end and be able to get larger companies on-board the 3PAR and HP Networking bandwagon.