ROC Software announced Escalibro at HP World, a new software module for its BackPack storage customers who want to share tape autochangers or libraries between HP 3000s and other corporate servers. Escalibro, which also works with ROC’s TapesPlus product, eliminates the need to move tapes manually during backup operations. The software is now in beta test and will be priced starting at $5,500.

HP also talked up its new Fibre Channel connectivity in its MPE/iX 7.5, new native support which became more clearly an A-Class and N-Class-only product. Walter McCullough, HP’s High Availability Solutions Architect for the 3000, clarified the target for native Fiber Channel, an enhancement that HP delayed so long it’s not going to appear for the thousands of 900 Series HP 3000s. “The implementation for native Fibre for MPE/iX 7.5 was designed specifically for the PCI architecture which the A/N-Class system uses,” McCullough said. “There are no plans to port this native Fibre code back to the older 900 Series systems. "Customers wishing to connect to HP supported Fibre Channel storage arrays with older HP e3000 hardware will need to use the SCSI-FC Fabric Router.”

He added that customers with EMC arrays “should contact EMC for more information. Up to now EMC has not shown an interest in testing newer Symmetrix arrays with the HP e3000, with either the router as a solution or native Fibre Channel.” We incorrectly reported in our September story about the new 7.5 that native Fibre would be an option for 900 Series systems.