Announced on the same day as the HDS VSP G1000, the HP XP7 storage system is "the highest performing enterprise-class disk array for mission-critical applications" according to company officials.

HP compared the XP7 with the EMC Symmetrix VMAX 40K storage array, saying the new product delivers three million IOPS (more than three 40Ks combined), and its maximum capacity of 4.5PB allows multiple EMC arrays to be replaced by one XP7, saving 12 square metres of floor space and more than US$100,000 per year in storage-related costs.

The XP7 also boasts 99.9999% uptime, or less than 31.5 seconds of application downtime per year. In addition, the multi-array virtualisation feature provides 100% uptime, even during online data migrations.

"Today's mission-critical workloads cannot afford to forfeit performance or scalability for increased disaster recovery and data protection," said David Scott, senior vice president and general manager, HP Storage.

"With the introduction of HP XP7 Storage, we are supplying customers with a single system that is highly efficient, with features that can reduce the risk of data loss and provide nonstop data availability."

The XP7 will ship in May, with a starting price of US$462,000.