In their ongoing coverage of VMworld 2013, Dave Vellante and John Furrier speak with Criag Nunes, VP Storage Marketing for HP. The three discuss key trends in IT, focusing on Software Defined Storage (SDS).

Vellante begins with the foundational question: “What is software defined storage?” Nunes defines it as “hardware agnostic” and “independent” software that is totally extracted on the underlying hardware. SDS is also managed by an open published API. Nunes adds, “we believe it’s a way to get into highly available storage without locking yourself into a particular management approach.”

Decisions about services are questions of optimization, says Nunes. He suggests, “You kind of have to start where you’re optimizing. Are you optimizing for costs or service levels?” Many clients are trying to get around cost challenges. For example, a company may not have the space or budget to bring in a virtualization department.

Vellante also inquires about what makes virtualization discussions so timely now. Nunes describes the timing as a “perfect storm.” Presently, much available compute is not being discussed. He explains, “You have servers with 24 drive slots. So, you’ve got capacity that abounds and compute that abounds. So, now more than ever, you have the resources to tap if you’ve got the software to tap. Virtualization drives shared storage and this is the most cost effective path to shared storage.”

Watch the full interview below:

Given that VMware has its own version of software defined storage, Vellante asks, “What does that mean from a storage standpoint?” To illustrate, Nunes says, “Think of the number shipments on the planet day in and day out. Then, within that, they’re aiming Vsan to enable their business around virtualization, big data.” However, HP’s approach is slightly different as they add a “value proposition for customers to bring more cost effective storage into those budget pressured virtualization environments,” says Nunes. He describes this offering as “a mature approach with data storages.”

Vellante also discusses 3Par given that HP was the disruptor in a now maturing market. “Flash has entered the scene and now the software defined data center has entered the scene,” observes Vellante. According to Nunes, the approach with 3Par gives “administrators a reason to not have to understand [because] you don’t need to worry about where you’re provisioning, where your snaps are. The platform is the fastest in the enterprise group for HP.” HP has introduced a new mid-range 3-par platform at what Nunes calls “a very affordable price point,” which “opened up a lot of possibilities for folks who weren’t really able to touch it.” Shipments of 3-par have tripled since last year.