Hardware giant Hewlett-Packard announced a new commitment to SSD storage with a new 3PAR configuration, P10000. This variation of the single tier storage array runs on SSDs, and as a result offers several advantages including less overhead than its disk-based sibling – up to 80 percent reduced cost per kilowatt according to the company.

More automation has been thrown in the mix as well, and the actual array has some impressive specs: 512 SSDs, 450K IOs per second and 1,900 300GB hard drives.

“Before our move to HP 3PAR Adaptive Optimization Software with solid state, service levels were being compromised and substantial time was spent moving between tiers reactively,” said Ken Kirchoff, director, Unix Systems and Storage, Priceline. “Now that data is automatically tiered, our total cost of ownership has dramatically improved, and our staff has more freedom to concentrate on strategic growth opportunities.”

The P10000 configuration will feature the Smart Cache software that’s already available for the HP ProLiant Gen8 servers. What it does is analyze usage in order to categorize data, and then places the most frequently accessed information on the high-performance flash. This automatic tiering can save a lot of administration on a large scale, and it also works in environments that feature both solutions. That means customers will be able to easily move data from a P10000 arras to HP Smart Array SSD cache on a Gen8 server.

A firm called Pure Storage has been selling all-flash storage long before this update, and last week the decision was made to expand the company’s approach. The firm announced a partner program that makes its offerings available to VARs, system integrators and service providers, giving them the chance to get involved with flash in exchange for growing Pure’s ecosystem.