HP EVA lab tour video - this is good!
Last week at HP Tech Day in Colorado Springs, invitees were given a guided tour of the impressive HP StoprageWorks EVA tast lab. Initially we were told "no cameras", but after being so impressed with the tour and facility, I badgered HP and they reversed their original decision and decided to allow the cameras in. This was a really good move from HP, in my opinion, and kudos to HPStorageGuy Calvin Zito for not just fobbing me off on my request). Not only do HP have nothing to hide, they actually have an impressive facility that they worth bragging about!
The actual video below is of a the second guided tour that we had from Tony Gregory the lab manager. In the first video section Tony explains that the lab has -
- Over 1,200 servers
- 500 EVA arrays (although there didn't seem quite that many from where I was looking*)
- Over 20PB storage
* I should point out that the far end of the lab was off limits to us, and no I didn't try and get a sneak peak. From memory the off limits area was about 4 or 5 rows deep. More than that I cannot say.
So the video below is an exclusive peak into the bowels of a major storage platforms support lab environment. May I suggest that if you dont like this video then you dont like storage........................... or you are a comptetitor ;-)
Enjoy the footage.
Although video footage is not quite the same as being there in person, I hope you get a glimpse of what an impressive facility this is and appreciate exactly what goes into delivering one of the best storage platforms in the world (and for the record Ive always been a fan of the EVA).
For further written analysis and some great stills, I recommend you pop over to Ray Lucchesi's writeup.
Two final points -
- This is not the only EVA testing facility HP have. On our first, non-videod tour, Tony mentioned at least one other facility, where they do "level 1 testing".
- Sadly there was no SSD available for us to shoot. But remember that we werent allowed to view the entire facility, so may be they had some in the "off limits" area at the back of the lab??
I was impressed! Thanks again to Calvin and the folks at HP for allowing us in with the cameras so we can share with everyone else - hope you enjoyed it.
Finally, for the record, the EVA currently supports up to 8 SSDs.
Nigel