HP’s bid for 3PAR not its first

After a bit of tap dancing, HP revealed that today’s $1.6 billion blockbuster bid for 3PAR was not its first.

HP published its offer letter today in which executive vice president, chief strategy and technology officer Shane Robinson wrote:

“We propose to increase our offer to acquire all of 3PAR outstanding common stock to $24.00 per share in cash. This offer represents a 33.3% premium to Dell’s offer price and is a “Superior Proposal” as defined in your merger agreement with Dell.”

In a conference call with media and analysts, Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager of HP’s Enterprise Server, Networking and Storage Business, said HP had “done due diligence on this deal prior to anything you’ve seen announced publicly” and “had multiple meetings with [3PAR’s] senior management.”

Finally, when asked whether HP had an outstanding offer on the table when Dell made its move for 3PAR, HP’s Steve Fieler, vice president, investor relations, admitted that there was “another offer on the table.”

Donatelli also said he expects HP’s relationship with Hitachi would continue. “There is always going to be overlap in storage solutions. That’s been happening for the past 20 years and I don’t have any concerns about it. I actually view that as a positive because it makes sure you have a seamless offering and that you don’t have any competitive gaps.”

He also said HP “looks forward to the response” from Dell.

Dell declined to comment on HP’s counteroffer.

For the full story on the HP-3PAR-Dell triangle, see “HP, Dell in Bidding War for 3PAR.”

You can hear a replay of the conference call/webcast on HP’s website.

Unified fabrics: 10GbE iSCSI vs. FCoE

January 29, 2010 -- The consensus is that 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) will be the basis for unified fabrics/converged networks, but which storage protocol will become the de facto standard for SAN/LAN convergence?

In a recent study "Benefits Of SAN/LAN Convergence," conducted by Forrester Research and commissioned by Dell, 10GbE iSCSI ranks highest among users as the protocol of choice for unified fabrics.

Forrester conducted an online survey with 213 storage professionals in the US, UK, China, and the Netherlands, and 10 in-depth interviews of the same audience. The results show that more than double the respondents selected 10GbE iSCSI (56%) versus the next closest choice, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) (27%).

The study also revealed that 66% of respondents overall said that they are very interested or moderately interested in the concept of unified fabric or SAN/LAN convergence.

The reason for the iSCSI interest is mostly due to the adoption of server virtualization technology. Forrester claims that iSCSI is growing as protocol of choice for virtual server deployments. In a Forrester Research survey from January 2009, Fibre Channel led strongly in protocol selection for virtual server connection. This time around, Fibre Channel still leads the way, but iSCSI is closer behind.

According to Forrester, the data points to strong interest in unified fabrics, as well as interest in iSCSI in 10GbE format as a viable alternative to Fibre Channel storage.

Travis Vigil, a senior manager with Dell responsible for the company's line of EqualLogic iSCSI SAN products, says iSCSI was one of the few segments of the storage market to experience year-over-year growth of approximately 25%.

"The economic situation was an accelerator for iSCSI growth as customers looked to eliminate cost and complexity from their environments. The other contributing factor to the growth of iSCSI is server virtualization as we've seen more and more customers choose iSCSI as their fabric of choice," he says. "First time server virtualization customers find iSCSI to be a cost-effective technology."

Vigil also says iSCSI 10GbE will only make iSCSI better as Ethernet becomes the basis for unified network fabrics. "Fibre Channel over Ethernet is still developing, but iSCSI is here and now. Ten Gigabit Ethernet is only going to make iSCSI better," he says.

For users with legacy Fibre Channel gear, FCoE leads the way as the Ethernet choice. If they move to an Ethernet SAN, 44% chose FCoE, but 30% chose iSCSI, at a close second, and 26% chose NFS, in third.

The shift to unified fabrics is definitely underway, but it will be interesting to see how iSCSI fares as FCoE products become fully baked.

Dell, KOM Networks are turning old storage into food

December 16, 2009 -- KOM Networks is teaming up with Dell and recycling partner the Technology Conservation Group (TCG) to turn optical jukeboxes and other storage gear into food for needy children.

The companies have announced the "Junk-A-Juke" program, which provides free archive and storage systems in exchange for donated end-of-life optical jukeboxes or legacy storage devices.

Under the program, the vendors will collect and recycle obsolete and legacy storage equipment and donate all the money generated from raw materials to Feed The Children.

In exchange for the older equipment, KOM offers a new Dell Powered KOMpliance Archive (based on the Dell PowerVault NX3000 NAS) with equal capacity, an enterprise class server and archive solution free-of-charge with a three year maintenance agreement.

The goal, according to KOM, is to collect and recycle enough hardware to feed one million children.

TCG will pick up and track each piece of equipment through destruction to ensure that nothing ends up in a landfill. TCG is an ISO registered recycler of electronic scrap and a member of NAID, the National Association for Information Destruction, a trade association providing the standards and ethics for the information destruction industry to ensure total compliant destruction of functional drives.

Dell mulls FCoE support

After shelling out $1.4 billion to buy SAN maker EqualLogic last year, it is safe to say that Dell has a hefty stake in the success and growth of the iSCSI storage market. Given all of the recent noise in the industry around Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) being the preferred storage protocol of the future, Dell held a conference call with media and analysts this morning to offer its two cents on the topic.

What it boils down to is that Dell’s storage folks believe converged networks based on lossless Ethernet technology will float all storage boats. According to Eric Endebrock, senior manager for Dell’s storage product group, iSCSI is here to stay and Fibre Channel storage will bolster FCoE as a way to connect legacy FC systems over 10GbE networks (and eventually 100GbE networks).

"Dell is a big believer in unifying the fabric, but that is long-term," said Endebrock. "We are not looking to take our customers and forklift them away from the environments they have today, but they will soon have to start making some choices."

Dell’s official stance is that unified fabrics make the most sense financially for customers in the long-term.

"We are going to support 10GbE and Data Center Ethernet (also known as Converged Enhanced Ethernet) in our EqualLogic PS arrays. Today our PS arrays support iSCSI and will continue to support iSCSI in the future," said Endebrock. "We are not changing now, but protocol flexibility is going to be a key to our success. EqualLogic equals iSCSI is not the best way to think about our investment in that area."

In other words, the company is not ruling out support for FCoE in its Dell EqualLogic PS5000 Series iSCSI SAN arrays.

At last week’s Storage Networking World conference, I asked Dell’s director of enterprise storage, Praveen Asthana, for his take on FCoE and how it might fit into Dell’s product plans going forward.

Asthana said FCoE has already been successful in one respect. It has prompted customers to start thinking about the future. However, he maintained that FCoE requires a networking overhaul and iSCSI is still less expensive overall. He also referred to FCoE as "a stop on the way to iSCSI."

It is no surprise that Dell, like its competitors, is keeping its options open. In the end, customers will ultimately dictate which protocol will dominate or whether FCoE and iSCSI will truly coexist in converged networks.