Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday will expand its line of products and services for small and midsize businesses with new storage capabilities, as well as new financing and online resources.

"This a continuation of our delivering solutions and technologies and services for SMBs," says Lisa Wolfe, worldwide SMB business protection marketing manager for HP. "We're trying to cover all the holes in a very predictive and prescriptive way while getting rid of issues of complexity."

Surveys of IT professionals at SMBs consistently show that the areas of greatest concern are security, backup and recovery, and the availability of business-critical systems, she says. Those same administrators have often failed to take any proactive measures to address those issues, however, because they find existing hardware and software products too complex or costly for their limited IT staffs and budgets.

HP is adding two new products to its Smart Office Portfolio. The StorageWorks Data Protector Express is HP's first backup and recovery software specifically designed for SMBs, Wolfe says. The platform features an easy to use interface that works in Windows, Netware, and Linux environments, eliminating the need for separate software tools for each platform. The platform supports tape, disk, CD, and DVD as backup media.

StorageWorks Data Protector Express is priced at $799, and includes one year of business-hours support and software update rights.

HP also is introducing the StorageWorks 1510i modular storage array, which enables the creation of a storage-area network external array with an iSCSI interface. The product allows users to implement and manage a SAN as easily as an Ethernet network, Wolfe says.

In addition, HP is announcing an expansion of its HP Smart Desktop Management backup-and-recovery service that was launched in May at a cost of $19 per client PC. The service is now available for a free 30-day trail.

HP has also added a finance option that allows SMBs that lease any of the new hardware, software, or services to delay payment until 2006. The company also will introduced a new online site for SMBs, www.hp.com/go/smartservices.