Storage Switzerland is attending Storage Networking World (SNW) again this fall and as in shows past we will be providing quick notes on our conversations throughout the show.

HP 3PAR's recent announcement of a new software capability for its arrays, Peer Motion, allows HP to join a select few vendors that can provide a new way to scale storage systems by moving volumes in real-time between storage controllers. The 3PAR solutions have had the ability to move data within a volume to different storage types (SSD, Fibre and SATA) within a storage system. Now with Peer Motion storage managers can move volumes between independent storage controllers, but don't just think of this as a way to migrate data, think of it as a way to scale a storage infrastructure.

Individual HP 3PAR Systems are already very scaleable, the new P10000 v400 can support 24 enclosures with 40 drives in each and the v800 40 enclosures with 40 drives in each. 3PAR maintains their tradition of providing maximum performance in fully populated systems, so there is no performance loss as capacity is added. Now Peer Motion can be used to load balance storage I/O demand across multiple HP 3PAR systems.

Peer Motion works with any generation of 3PAR storage and allows for inter-generational data migration. If an organization has an older 3PAR solution, one of the logical first use cases of Peer Motion will be to migrate volumes to a new 3PAR array like the v400 or v800 but that older 3PAR array could still be used for other workloads that don't have the performance demands that justify the use of the v400. Of course workload demands change and if a workload suddenly demands more performance its data can be moved to another 3PAR array at anytime without down time.

This capability provides 3PAR with more than a migration capability, it is a scaling capability. Peer Motion eliminates the need for a forced cutover and instead allows the gradual implementation of faster systems while protecting and prolonging the life of earlier 3PAR investments.