HP Reduces Data Retention Costs with Expanded Portfolio of Tiered Storage Solutions

today introduced new disk, tape and optical storage technologies and enhanced information management software that expand the industry's broadest portfolio of tiered storage solutions.
From the entry-level to high-end, HP provides customers with the flexibility to store business data - from creation to deletion - on the most cost-effective storage platform according to changing performance and reliability requirements.
The storage offerings combined with HP's enhanced information management software help customers to better align data retention and protection costs with the business value of information over time - a critical component of HP's information lifecycle management strategy.

New and enhanced product offerings include:

-- HP OpenView Data Protector version 5.5 - delivering more than
200 new features for comprehensive and cost-effective data
management across tiers of storage technologies.

-- HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array (MSA) 1500 cs - providing
tiered storage within a single system by offering
industry-first support for concurrent attachment of both SCSI
and Serial ATA (SATA) disk enclosures behind a single
controller shelf.

-- HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960 Tape Drive - based on
third-generation Linear Tape-Open tape drive technology and
providing industry-first Ultrium-based Write-Once Read-Many
(WORM) capability.

-- HP StorageWorks Optical Jukeboxes - providing long-term,
archival storage of electronic records and data for
cost-effective regulatory compliance.

"Customers are buying network storage across multiple tiers in order to cost-effectively manage huge data volumes and satisfy long-term data retention and regulatory compliance requirements," said Frank Harbist, vice president and general manager, Information
Lifecycle Management, HP. "No other vendor can match HP's depth and breadth of storage solutions - ranging from the entry-level to the enterprise and across disk, tape and optical storage technologies - to allow customers to store data on the most cost-effective storage
platform based on the changing business relevance of information throughout its lifecycle."

Cost-efficient data movement across storage tiers

HP OpenView Data Protector version 5.5 software delivers more than 200 new and enhanced features to provide customers with a scalable data management solution that automates high-performance backup and recovery, from disk or tape, and over unlimited distances to help ensure continuous business operations and cost-efficient data
movement.
"At Continental we believe in the future of HP's OpenView Data Protector and its ability to help manage our business," said Devin York, director of Financial Systems, Continental Airlines. "With the release of Data Protector 5.5, we see the new Advanced Media
Management features, specifically disk-to-disk backup, as the next breakthrough technology which will lower scalability costs, increase performance and allow Continental to meet our data compliance objectives."
Key product features and functionality of HP OpenView Data Protector 5.5 software include:

-- Advanced backup to disk: Improves the backup process with
continuous backup of transaction log files, backup of slow
clients without multiplexing, and simplified resource access
and sharing. The new feature also allows tape virtualization
with easy backup resource sharing and complements the Data
Protector direct backup to disk technologies for
"zero-downtime" backup, instant recovery and virtual tape
library (file library).

-- Advanced media management (object copy): Enhances media
management by eliminating the need to copy an entire tape or
disk. Instead, only portions that have been added during the
selected period are copied and can be appended to the end of
an already copied tape or disk. The space-efficient automated
media copy increases flexibility and reduces costs of tape and
drive consumption. This new capability also enables migration
and consolidation from disk to tape and between different tape
types as well as tape compaction to eliminate unprotected
backups.

-- Backup Mirroring: Mirrors media sets over unlimited distances
at highest performance via shared memory. This simplifies
preparations for a potential data center disaster recovery and
offers remote, long-term archiving combined with fast local
tape access.

The HP StorageWorks Data Protector version 5.5 is available today. Estimated U.S. pricing for the Starter Pack is $1,196 for Windows(R) and $5,605 for UNIX(R).(1)

Tiered storage within a single system

The HP StorageWorks MSA1500 cs, a 2-gigabit Fibre Channel SAN-attached 2U controller shelf, is the industry's first disk array to enable the concurrent attachment of both SCSI and SATA disk enclosures behind a single controller shelf.
By integrating both low-cost, high-capacity SATA hard drives and enclosures with SCSI drive enclosures, the MSA1500 cs offers customers the flexibility, management simplicity and cost-effectiveness of a solution providing multiple tiers of storage within a single system
and with a single management view. This unique capability enables customers to segment data between primary and secondary storage according to performance and reliability requirements and based on the relevance of data and frequency of access.
The MSA1500 can support up to eight attached SATA enclosures delivering up to 24 terabytes (using 96- to 250-gigabyte SATA disk drives) of raw capacity. If the business requires SCSI drive performance and reliability, up to four SCSI enclosures can be attached for a raw capacity of up to 16 TB (using 56- to 300-GB SCSI disks).
The HP StorageWorks MSA 1500 cs is available today with an estimated U.S. starting price of $8,995.(1)

Affordable, high-performance archival storage and compliance

The HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960 Tape Drive - a third-generation,
full-height Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format tape drive - comes with both
rewritable and Write-Once, Read-Many (WORM) data cartridges.
Offering 800 GB of compressed capacity and the industry's highest
performance at a 160 GB-per-second compressed transfer rate, the
Ultrium 960 also provides industry-first support for an Ultra320 SCSI
interface - making it the world's fastest tape drive for compressible
data.
Designed for the direct-attach backup and data archiving
requirements of midrange and enterprise customers, the Ultrium 960
tape drives deliver twice the capacity and more than double the
performance of HP's previous generation of Ultrium tape drives.
The higher capacity reduces the costs associated with data
protection by requiring fewer data cartridges to complete backups and
the increased performance allows customers to scale their backup
capacities without having to increase their backup windows.
The Ultrium 960 is also the industry's first Ultrium tape drive to
support WORM data cartridges. The addition of WORM capability provides
HP customers with a more secure, simple and cost-effective method of
archiving data to satisfy long-term data retention and regulatory
compliance requirements. WORM tape provides users with the ability to
store petabytes of unalterable data for secure offsite storage at a
fraction of the cost of disk storage.
The Ultrium 960 also offers an exclusive to HP One-Button Disaster
Recovery (OBDR) utility to minimize recovery time in the event of a
disaster. Using a single Ultrium 960 tape drive and data cartridge,
the firmware-based data protection and disaster recovery feature
allows for the restoration of an entire system, including the
operating system, configuration, applications, drivers and data files.
HP also offers an exclusive data rate matching feature with its
Ultrium 960 drives. This feature allows the tape drive to adjust its
transfer rate to the speed of the host system dynamically and
continuously. Data rate matching keeps the data to the drive
"streaming," reducing the need to rewind the tape back and forth to
wait for the host. The feature optimizes performance and reduces the
wear and tear on the drives for increased reliability.
Additionally, each HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960 tape drive ships
with a single-server HP OpenView Data Protector version 5.5 license to
offer customers the simplicity of a single solution for data backup
and WORM storage needs.
Expected availability for HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960 tape drives
and HP StorageWorks Ultrium 800 GB data cartridges, in both rewritable
and WORM formats, is Dec. 13. The estimated U.S. starting price for
the Ultrium 960 tape drive is $5,549.(1)

Cost-effective archival storage for small and mid-size businesses

HP's portfolio of Ultra Density Optical (UDO) jukeboxes now
includes the HP StorageWorks Optical 700ux and 1100ux Jukeboxes.
These entry-level jukeboxes provide small and mid-size business
customers with cost-effective, removable storage for secure, long-term
archival of electronic records to help satisfy data retention and
regulatory compliance requirements. When compared to magneto-optical
drives, UDO drives offer more than three times the capacity at 30 GB
per platter and a cost-per-gigabyte savings of more than 75 percent.
Customers also benefit from improved performance and reduced cost
by offloading less frequently accessed data from existing servers or
primary storage to a lower-cost-per-gigabyte storage solution.
The jukeboxes offer direct attach or Fibre connectivity for
archival storage from 720 GB to 1.1 TB in either WORM or rewritable
formats. The products also provide the ability to grow capacity within
the same cabinet for added investment protection.
The HP StorageWorks Optical 700ux and 1100ux Jukeboxes are
available today with an estimated U.S. starting price of $7,975.(1)

(1) Actual prices may vary.

Windows is a U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever
materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its
consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All
statements other than statements of historical fact are statements
that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the
expected development, performance or rankings of products or services;
statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions
underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions
include the development, performance and market acceptance of products
and services and other risks that are described from time to time in
HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not
limited to HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended
July 31, 2004 and other reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003. HP assumes no obligation
and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

(C) 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information
contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only
warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express
warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing
herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP
shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions
contained herein.