3PAR
| Company type | Public company (until 2010) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data storage systems and software |
| Founded | January 1, 1999 Fremont, California, USA |
| Founder | Jeffrey Price, Ashok Singhal, Robert Rogers |
| Defunct | September 27, 2010 |
| Fate | Acquired by Hewlett-Packard |
| Headquarters | Fremont , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | David Scott (President and CEO from January 2001) |
| Products | Data storage systems, storage management software |
| Parent | Hewlett-Packard (from 2010) |
3PAR Inc. was a company specializing in the production of data storage systems and software for managing information, headquartered in Fremont, California, USA. Its product portfolio included computer data storage solutions such as hardware disk arrays alongside storage management applications. The firm was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2010 and later integrated into Hewlett Packard Enterprise following HP’s enterprise division spin-off in 2015.
History
The company, initially named 3PARdata, was founded around 1998 or 1999 by Jeffrey Price, Ashok Singhal, and Robert Rogers, who departed in 2001. David Scott took on the role of president and CEO in January 2001.
3PAR launched its InServ storage server in September 2002. Its primary rivals included Dell EMC, Pure Storage, NetApp, Hitachi Data Systems, and IBM. The firm was a pioneer in thin provisioning, a technology that improves storage capacity efficiency, first revealed in June 2002 and made available to clients by 2003.
In February 2004, the company secured approximately $33 million in funding from investors including Mayfield Fund, Menlo Ventures, and Worldview Technology Partners. By September 2007, it had established a second research and development facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The initial public offering occurred in November 2007 on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker symbol PAR. That same month, 3PAR introduced Virtual Domains to enable secure data separation on multi-tenant storage environments. In December 2008, the company transitioned to trading on the NYSE Big Board.
Towards the end of 2009, 3PAR set up an Indian branch based in Bangalore to support its Global Services and Support teams. In March 2010, it unveiled 3PAR Adaptive Optimization, recognized as the industry’s first autonomic storage tiering solution aimed at reducing costs for high-end systems used by enterprises and service providers. In April 2010, Forbes ranked 3PAR as the fourth fastest-growing technology firm on its Tech25 list.
Takeover bids
On August 16, 2010, Dell announced intentions to acquire 3PAR for roughly $1.15 billion after cash adjustments. Just a week later, on August 23, Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) presented a competing offer valued at $1.5 billion, which was about 30% higher than Dell’s proposal.
By August 26, after revising its bid to $24.30 per share (approximately $1.6 billion net), 3PAR initially accepted Dell’s offer. However, on the following day, bidding intensified: Dell increased its offer to $27 per share while HP promptly countered with $30 per share, valuing the company above $2 billion.
On September 2, Dell raised its bid to $32 per share but opted not to match HP’s subsequent offer of $33 per share ($2.4 billion). Following termination of the original merger agreement, Dell received a breakup fee totaling $72 million.
HP finalized the acquisition on September 27, 2010, at a price of $2.35 billion. Subsequently, in 2015, 3PAR was incorporated into Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Products
3PAR focused on "utility storage," engineered as the infrastructure for utility computing frameworks that facilitate multi-tenant virtualized enterprise IT services. This approach complemented emerging trends such as SaaS and IaaS cloud computing models as well as internal IT service bureaus consolidating workloads through shared virtualized resources.
By 2005, 3PAR was marketing its InServ storage servers targeted at enterprise data centers. The T400 and T800 models competed against high-end monolithic arrays like EMC’s DMX and HDS’s USP series while the F200 and F400 were positioned against modular arrays such as EMC CX and HP EVA.
Currently offered under HPE are the 3PAR product lines including the 8000, 9000, and 20,000 series. Launched in 2015, the mid-tier 8000 series provides both flash-based and hybrid configurations. The top-tier 20,000 series supports up to eight nodes with federation capabilities for scalable expansion. Introduced in 2017, the 9000 series serves as an intermediate option with support for up to four nodes.
All these models incorporate a proprietary ASIC architecture—now at Gen5—that powers essential features such as compression, thin provisioning, and parity computations. The unified 3PAR OS software (version 3.3.1) further enhances data reduction through sophisticated compression and deduplication technologies.
Additional resources
External resources
- Articles with short description
- Computer firms founded in 1999
- Businesses located in Fremont, California
- Defunct American computer companies
- Former computer hardware manufacturers
- Companies specializing in computer storage
- Storage Area Network providers
- Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
- Companies previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange
- Technology enterprises in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Mergers and acquisitions in 2010
- 1999 California establishments