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May 2016

June 2015

Competitive Selling Guide: EMC UNITY Series vs. HP 3PAR StoreServ

HP/3PAR StoreServ Overview
HPs 3PAR StoreServ is a storage platform line that spans the
midrange to enterprise, and that integrates emphasizes ease of
use, built-in provisioning, and scale-out capability for the larger
models. 3PAR includes autonomic functions to support dynamic
and unexpected growth associated with Cloud Computing and Big
Data. HP attempts to position EMCs storage architectures, the
VMAX and UNITY lines, as outdated and unable to support
efficiency, scaling, and multi-tenancy requirements of Cloud and
Bid Data. HP positions EMCs UNITY series as a repackaging
exercise that is only unified at the Unisphere GUI with two aging
software architectures running different O/S and associated
software.

The Unity series delivers industry-leading innovation and enterprise

capabilities for file, block, and object storagesimply, efficiently,
and powerfully. With advanced MCx Technology, UNITY scales in a
more linear fashion than HP/3PAR and is simpler to manage. Unity
reduces users cost of storage with new low-cost flash drives and allinclusive software.

UNITY is an integrated unified All Flash or Hybrid platform with

enterprise-class transactional file support. 3PARs File Persona is
positioned for user shares only, specifically not for application
or virtualization deployments.

Leading performance - up to 3X the speed of the VNX Series

platforms.

All Flash Unity systems combine the latest flash technology with
comprehensive data services to deliver a full-featured platform
that scales without additional software costs.

Take advantage of new 3D NAND TLC drives to drive down cost

for all flash Unity arrays and all flash pools.

Hybrid UNITY platforms maximize storage efficiency with FAST

VP and FAST Cache for superior flash integration. 3PAR block
deduplication is limited to flash drives, and impractical to use
for hybrid arrays.

UNITY series allows for in-family upgrades and scales better

than 3PAR, especially for flash, to meet customers growing
needs. Combining UNITY performance with scalability,
availability and migration support of VPLEX provides unique
migration and application availability features.

Major points HP uses against the EMC UNITY series are:

UNITY series is really two architectures unified only by a brand,

while 3PARs File Persona is claimed to be provide greater
density because it runs in the same controllers as black. These
claims ignore the fact the UNITY File is scalable, enterprise-class
transactional file while File Persona is limited in scale and for file
shares only.
HP 3PAR Utility Storage offers autonomic storage groups with
fine grained auto-tiering and thin provisioning enabled by the
3PAR ASIC.
3PAR offers enterprise quality at a lower TCO including activemesh, fine-grained virtualization and wide striping, and
persistent cache (with 4+ nodes). The downside of 3PARs wide
stripe approach is the large minimum number of drives needed
to achieve good performance.

Why UnIty Series over HP 3PAR

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Questions To Ask HP 3PAR

Do HPs autonomic policy management features deliver

increased reliability, simplicity, and reduce storage
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administration times? 3PAR limits the options available to
administrators so it can reduce administration. Unisphere is just
as easy, but with more control, especially over flash drive
resources and for configuring multiple pools optimized for
application requirements.

HP claims write cache persistence in the case of a node failure,

however only on any systems configured with four or more
nodes. 3PAR write cache persistence requires at least four
nodes (nodes sold in pairs); customer pays twice for the
controllers. This significantly increases the entry-point cost for
HP.

With the UNITY series, customers can start small

with the Unity 300 and move up the product line as
their infrastructure requirements grow.

UNITY supports write cache persistence even

when an SP fails.

UNITY processors utilize proven MCx technology to scale

performance with little or no impact even if a controller fails.
3PAR offers a multi-node concept, but typically delivers dualnode arrays. Expanding a two-node 8400 or 8440 system to
four nodes requires the system to double in size, resulting a
significant investment for customers.

How do 3PAR arrays scale within the family? They dont. There
is no upgrade from a 8200 to a 8400, from 8400 to an 8440, or
from 8000 Series to the 20000 Series.

Can 3PAR 8000-series arrays address large-capacity

requirements economically while being green and spaceefficient? No - the 8440 scales to a maximum of 3,000 TB raw.
To deliver 6 PB raw, HP must supply two 8440 arrays with four
nodes each.

A single Unity 600 can satisfy 3PB raw with 500 x 6

TB NL-SAS drives. For even greater capacity, utilize
the 1,500 drive scalability of the VNX8000.

Is HPs 3PAR optimized for Flash drives? 3Par lacks an

equivalent to FAST Cache because Adaptive Flash Cache does
not provides the benefits of write as well as read caching. FAST
Cache supports improved performance when system write
cache is disabled.

How does 3PAR offer NAS access? Its 3830 gateways have been
replaced on C and 8000 models with the 3PAR file Persona
running directly on the StoreServ controllers. File use is limited
to user file shares only, with block prescribed for all application
storage. Maximum file support per array is limited to 256TB of
file capacity.

EMC has scalable with far greater file capacity

than 3PAR, managed by the same Unisphere interface.
UNITY also delivers important capabilities for
application and virtualization deployments, such as
unified SAN and NAS for SharePoint and the option of
NFS for Oracle and VMware.

Does 3PAR offer remote replication? Yes, but there are too few
Remote Copy nodes, which creates bottlenecks and
performance problems. SRM failback is complex on 3PAR
because failback is manual and involves a re-sync.

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UNITY with RecoverPoint offers CDP/CRR, offloads

processing from the array, and provides data
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compression for more efficient replication transport.

HP cannot claim that EMC does not publish performance

benchmarks.

EMC VNX8000 achieved SPC-1 results that are

superior to HP 3PAR 7400 for both IOPS and $ per
IOPS.

Ask HP what capabilities support their claim 4X reduction

in storage capacity when migrating to 3PAR. HP bases
their claims of space reduction on 2X reduction from
implementing thin provisioning for customers with legacy
storage using thick or full provisioning. Thin provisioning,
which is now common place among midrange and even
entry storage platforms, provides initial savings in
capacity utilization, however it doesnt ultimately impact
the amount of data being stored. 3PAR claims a further
2X, resulting from data deduplication, but DOES NOT
support this technology across all storage tiers, neither do
they support compression.
EMC UNITY will support in-line data compression for
all-flash pools in a future release, and a subsequent
release is planned that will include hybrid and file
support as well. These technologies continue to pay
benefits over time as they optimize storage efficiency
and reduce future capacity purchases.

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How does HP protect customers data at rest? 3PAR

requires the use of self-encrypting drives (SEDs), which
add cost and limit configuration flexibility and expansion
options.

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Unity provides simple and secure protection with

controller-based D@RE, which works with any SSD or

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HDD supported on the system. Customers do not have

to purchase more expensive SEDs in advance in order
to anticipate the need for D@RE later on.

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Position
this EMC
Model

When HP
Positions

Supported
Protocols

Max. Drive Count

3PAR
(HDD/SSD)

Unity/VNX

VNX8000
AFC

8450 All Flash

1,500

480

VNX7600

8440 4-node

1,000

960/480

Unity
600/600F

8400 4-node

500

576/240

Unity
500/500F

8400 2-node

350

288/120

Unity
400/400F

8200

250

240/120

Unity/VN
X

Main Software Suites/Features Positioned

3PAR

EMC

3PAR

Management: Unisphere

FC, FCoE,
iSCSI,
CIFS, NFS,
pNFS

Unity:
All-Inclusive Unity Software

FC, FCoE,
iSCSI

VNX:
Zero-cost software: Protocols, file
deduplication and compression
Essentials:
Replication, RecoverPoint,
D@RE
FAST Suite

Management:
Management System Software
Suite including Thin Provisioning
Additional Suite licenses:
Replication Suite
Remote Copy
Data Optimization Suite
File Persona
Security Suite
Application Software Suites
Reporting Software Suite

Positioning UNITY Series Models Against HP 3PAR StoreServ A Mapping Summary

High-Level UNITY Series/HP 3PAR Comparison
Capability

UNITY / VNX

3PAR
HP

Simple
Unified (file, block, object)
VMware integration
Controller-based D@RE
Efficient
Automated tiering
Deduplication
Compression
Replication bandwidth reduction
Powerful
Optimized for Flash

**

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Competitor FUD, Facts, and U-Turns

Competitor
FUD or
Claim

Fact and U-Turn

3PAR has lower

cost per GB for
all flash
storage

Fact: 3PAR exaggerates cost claims by including thin

provisioning.
U-Turn: Unity offers new low-cost SSD drives and will
deliver in-line data compression in a future release?

3PAR offers
better
resiliency than
a UNITY (multinode system)
3PAR arrays
scale out

Fact: UNITY offers write cache persistence on two

SPs while 3PAR requires four nodes much more
expensive.
U-Turn: For superior availability, the VNX-VPLEX
solution provides advanced VPLEX features for
VMware and applications both within and between
data centers.
Fact: UNITY supports more raw and usable capacity
than a fully populated 8440.

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Extended cache w/ SSDs
DVR-like recovery
* For SSD tier only

better than
Unity

U-Turn: How many 8440s are required to support 6

PB of raw capacity?

** Expected Availability: 2H2016

In closing: Boost performance and minimize costs by taking advantage of new flash drive and VPLEX frame-based pricing and software value
for high-flash content configurations.

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