Hewlett-Packard just refreshed its storage portfolio with a new system, major upgrades to its StoreEasy series NAS boxes, and a set of incentives for channel partners and SMBs that leverage its hardware solutions.

The big addition to the vendor’s lineup is the MSA 2040, a new entry-level disk array for SMBs. HP touts that the box is the first of its kind to deliver 16 gigabit Fibre Channel connectivity, and claims that it can perform up to four times faster than similarly priced external disk systems. The MSA 2040 is joined by several enhancements to the StoreEasy file and object store appliances. These include a new provisioning tool that makes it easier to create volumes, integrated snapshot management functionality, a configuration wizard for clustered StoreEasy 3830 Gateways and support for HP Data Protector and Autonomy LiveVault.

The StoreEasy upgrades and MSA 2014 will become available in June this year. The latter will be offered through the company’s new Simply StoreIT program, which provides solution guides and reference architectures for channel partners and SMB customers.
“Virtualization and other emerging workloads threaten to drown SMBs in a sea of complexities that hinder, rather than support, growth,” said David Scott the senior vice president and general manager of HP’s storage business. “Simply StoreIT allows our partners to serve their small and midsized customers who are stressed for time, budget and resources to support a growing business, with a stress-free storage solution.”

You don’t have to look very far to see that partners are a top priority for HP: Calxeda, a provider of low-power ARM processors, supplies that chips that power the vendor’s groundbreaking Moonshot servers. Calxeda’s Karl Freud discussed his company’s role in HP’s big push into the hyperscale market at the Moonshot launch event.