HP flexes flash muscles with 'most-affordable' kit

New HP gear starts at $19,000

HP has moved to bolster its position in the flash market by launching its "most-affordable all-flash array" yet.

The vendor boasted about the 3PAR StoreServ products in an announcement last night, in which it revealed the kit will start from $19,000 (£12,300) – making it "the most-affordable all-flash array" yet.

The new range will offer twice the workload performance of previous generations, HP said, adding that its development in the space is driven by the rocketing market.

"The flash storage market is growing at over 46 per cent compound annual growth as customers embrace flash to accelerate more applications across their datacentres," HP said in a statement.

"Within this fast-paced segment, Gartner... noted that HP was the fastest-growing flash vendor based on revenue shipments in 2014. More recently HP moved up to the number two market share position in all-flash."

Competition in the flash market has intensified greatly in the past two years, with bullish upstarts such as Pure Storage ruffling the feathers of more-established players such as EMC and HP.

Manish Goel, senior vice president and general manager of HP Storage, said the new products are leading the way.

"Regardless of your size, budget, growth rate, quality of service requirements, or even your storage network environment, HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage offers a best-in-class flash solution to power your public, private, or hybrid cloud with uncompromising adaptability from a single architecture," he said.