HP started shipping the new high-performance HP SureStore E Disk System HVD10, a disk enclosure that replaces the High Availability Storage System (HASS) known as Jamaica. The HVD10 is intended to represent an entry-level Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) device. By using HP’s new Ultra 2 73.4 Gb, 10,000 RPM disk drives, the HVD10 provides HP 3000 sites with higher capacity and performance disks for fast-wide HVD SCSI environments: five times greater capacity per enclosure, and 10 times greater capacity per two-meter rack over the HASS.

Bill Lancaster, a member of the High Availability Forum and HP 3000 consultant, praised the new enclosure. “HVD10 looks like an excellent replacement for the Jamaica HASS enclosures,” he said. “We are working with a customer to implement a set of HVD10s, but are configuring it so that we will VOLUTIL only 50 percent of the space for each 9Gb mechanism. We are doing this for performance reasons, to make sure that we don’t pack more than 4.5Gb per spindle.”

“Some of these Jamaicas have been out there a long time, and with anything that has moving parts, eventually they fail.” Lancaster said. “Bringing the new devices out extends that Mean Time Between Failure roulette you have to play.”