GuidesHP Tweaks Storage, Servers for Adaptive Work

HP Tweaks Storage, Servers for Adaptive Work

ServerWatch content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.




In a move to bring more “adaptive” qualities to data centers and grid computing, HP Wednesday introduced several new software and hardware offerings.

The computer and printer maker invests in new grid storage software, new Itanium dual-processor modules and a refresh of its NonStop services contracts.

To help foster business in even more server rooms, HP is investing in four key areas out of its $4 billion R&D budget. With the help of Intel, HP is introducing a new dual processor module, called “mx2,” which features two industry-standard Intel Itanium 2 processors on a “single” module that can plug into existing systems.

The company is also launching its HP StorageWorks Reference Information Storage System (RISS) — a high-performance data management software based on the company’s own
“storage grid” architecture.

Also, its services division is rolling out a handful of new service packages designed for mission-critical NonStop servers as well as an expansion of its Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) services portfolio. The company is presenting its offerings as part of
its user conference in Munich, Germany this week.

HP said it has expanded its relationship with three current customers: auto parts manufacturer Gates Corporation (no relationship to Microsoft’s chairman), which signed up for a pay-per-use contract; Amadeus, which provides IT for the travel and tourism industry; and Ford Motor Company, which inked a hardware, software and
printing deal for its offices in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Based in part on HP’s recent acquisition of Persist Technologies, the
company’s RISS platform is part of its ILM offerings. The open standards
services and architecture is pre-integrated with partner technologies and is
debuting with active archiving and rapid retrieval of e-mail, including
offloading Microsoft Exchange. The company said other common data types
will follow in the next 12 months.

The average company employee has about 76 e-mails per day. Multiply that
by the number of employees at your company and the number gets pretty
high,” Mark Hudson, vice president of marketing for the HP Enterprise Storage and Servers group, told internetnews.com. “RISS has the ability to digitally
sign it, time stamp it, and log it in a grid fashion. So when you look at
what EMC has done with its Centera platform, theirs is not complete and
relies on more third-party solutions.”

As part of its broader ILM-related services, HP brought its Business
Requirements Analysis online. The platform includes an assessment of data
policies; education on electronic record archiving requirements and
regulatory compliance with data collection rules under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley mandate; and a review of policy documents and other documentation.

The company is also launching its Electronic Vaulting Services platform.
The combination of HP StorageWorks hardware/software/services includes
design, installation and management services for disk-to-disk backup at a
customer site or an HP host site as well as other data protection
procedures.

HP is asking its local partners to step up to win over new
vertical industries. The company has called on ADIC for rich media;
CaminoSoft, Grau Data Storage and Pegasus Disk Technologies for hierarchal
storage management; Orchestria for e-mail policy management; and Princeton
Softech for enterprise resource planning and database archiving.

Also in the services realm, HP said it has revised its HP NonStop
services portfolio to now include a “Mission Critical” support option for the
servers. The package includes dedicated senior support team and a customized
service-level agreement. HP is also offering its HP Critical Service, HP
Proactive 24 Service, and HP Support Plus 24 to help keep things running.
The company said each of the new packages includes support agreements
courtesy of its HP Instant Support Enterprise Edition (ISEE) – remote
support over a secure Internet connection with robust troubleshooting and
repair capabilities via predefined scripts.

HP has also beefed up its Itanium-based hardware lineups. The company
debuted its new dual processor module, called “mx2.” The hardware made up of
Itanium “Madison” cores with 6 MB of L2 cache allows support for up to 128
processors. That is twice the number of Itanium 2 processors than earlier
versions, which were limited to HP’s PA-RISC systems.

HP said the board configurations are also upgradeable to current
Integrity architectures.

“That is good for our consolidation message,” Hudson commented. “Itanium
is going to benefit too as it is close to having 2,500 applications ported
so far.”

HP is also taking advantage of its relationship with Intel to launch an
aggressive price war focused on the HP Integrity running Itanium chips
starting in May and running through September.

This article was originally published on internetnews.com.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Posts

Related Stories