HP Announces Extended Converged Infrastructure Leadership

HP (NYSE: HPQ) todayannounced new innovations that strengthen its HP ConvergedInfrastructure portfolio. At its yearly Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, HP unveiled anew HP BladeSystem, HP Converged Storage and HP Networking solutions,as well as HP Services that accelerate return on IT investment andenable customers to refocus resources from operations to innovation. Significant shifts in the IT industry, including cloud, big data,social media and mobility, have added new challenges for chiefinformation officers (CIOs) in meeting customer, partner and employeeexpectations while aligning IT and enterprise goals with limited funding. The HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio addresses these growingchallenges and leads the industry in deploying and managinglarge-scale infrastructures. HP has delivered more than 8 millionvirtual connect ports, issued more than 7 million HP InsightManagement licenses, shipped more than 40 petabytes of bladed storageand 50 million switch ports, and grown to nearly 900 HP CloudSystemcustomers.(1) In addition, HP has led the industry in blade serverrevenue and shipments for 24 consecutive quarters.(2) Only HP Converged Infrastructure offers customers: *T -- An open, standards-based, heterogeneous approach that integrates servers, storage, networking and management software.-- Proven experience of implementing Converged Infrastructure solutions for customers around the world -- as well as close collaboration with 4,500 HP AllianceOne members and partners who develop complete solutions built on HP Converged Infrastructure.-- Comprehensive consulting and support services by HP and certified partners that simplify IT management, improve return on investment (ROI) by optimizing IT investments, and ensure a high-quality customer experience.*T "HP pioneered the concept of a converged infrastructure, and we werethe first to deliver it," said David Donatelli, executive vicepresident and general manager, Enterprise Group, HP. "But we're notresting on our achievements, we continue to innovate and extend theHP Converged Infrastructure portfolio to deliver the benefits thatour business and government customers expect from us." New HP BladeSystem delivers breakthrough data center economics Virtualization offers significant benefits to organizations.According to Gartner, in 2016, 82 percent of server workloads will berunning in virtual environments,(3) which could increase managementcomplexity and operational costs. The new HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure, a key solutionwithin the industry-leading HP ProLiant portfolio, dramaticallyimproves performance, efficiency and availability of resources invirtualized and cloud environments. As a result, organizations cansave up to 68 percent in data center operating costs.(4) Thesegroundbreaking data center economics are delivered throughnext-generation technologies that provide long-term investmentprotection and can scale to support growth. The HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure with the new SX1018 HPEthernet switch, which provides the lowest port-to-port latency ofany blade switch, is more than four times faster than previous switches.(5,6) HP also is the first in the industry to provide 40GBdownlinks to each blade server for near-real time performance. Thisprovides the ideal network interface for high-performance clusters orfinancial services applications. HP also introduced the new HP ProLiant WS460c Generation 8 (Gen8)Server Blade, the only bladed infrastructure that supportsvirtualized client solutions with high-density 3-D graphics and eightGPUs per blade server. Supporting four times more users per hostblade, the HP WS460c lowers costs by up to 60 percent per usercompared to previous generations, to mobilize an entireworkforce.(7,8) HP innovations accelerate move to modern storage architecture Unpredictable data growth and workload performance demands areforcing customers to upgrade legacy storage architectures. Thistransition -- from legacy to modern, scale-out storage architectures -- represents a multibillion dollar opportunity for channel partners. HP StoreVirtual Storage offers pioneering software-defined storagethat is delivered either as virtual storage appliance (VSA) softwareor as a converged storage appliance (CSA) on HP ProLiant hardware. HPhas been shipping VSAs for more than seven years and has distributedmore than 150,000 VSAs worldwide. To capitalize on and accelerate the adoption of software-definedstorage, HP announced two new HP StoreVirtual Storage systems, basedon HP ProLiant Gen8 technologies. Improving both productivity andefficiency for businesses deploying virtualization, HP StoreVirtualStorage systems deliver nearly double the performance and capacitydensity compared to previous models. In addition, the new HP StoreSystem, a channel-only midrange storagesolution, combines HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage and HP StoreOnce Backupsystems that are preracked for rapid deployment. Offering primary block-and-file storage with information protection in a singlesystem, HP StoreSystem now includes all HP 3PAR platform and VMwaresoftware suites to maximize customer efficiency and agility. HP Technology Services simplify, integrate, automate a ConvergedInfrastructure With HP Technology Services, customers can simplify,integrate and automate their IT environments to rapidly respond toorganizational change and accelerate time to revenue. HP Technology Services is now offering the HP Proactive Insightexperience, which enables customers to take proactive actions as wellas automate and manage tasks, resulting in problem prevention andproductivity gains averaging $32,000 per 100 users.(9) The HP Proactive Insight experience begins with HP Proactive Care,which provides proactive problem avoidance and direct access toadvanced technical expertise. This service is powered by innovative support and management technologies, including HP Insight Online, theindustry's most comprehensive cloud-based management portal; and HPInsight Remote Support, which remotely monitors servers, storage andnetworks. With the HP Proactive Insight experience, customers canincrease user productivity and achieve a return on their servicesinvestment in 30 days or less.(9) HP innovations deliver the industry's only complete BYOD networkingsolution By 2016, two-thirds of the workforce will own smartphones,and 40 percent of the workforce will be mobile.(10) Yet, today'slegacy infrastructure requires two separate networks to support wiredand wireless connectivity, resulting in operational complexity andsecurity challenges. HP also launched the industry's only complete solution that supportsgrowing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives. This solutiondelivers unified wired and wireless management as well as switching platforms that create a single network for wired and wirelessconnectivity. HP networking innovations also include device on-boarding andprovisioning functionalities through a single management application,automated security with software-defined networks (SDN) technology,and mobility connectivity services that further extend the customerbenefits of the HP FlexNetwork architecture. To double network scalability over legacy infrastructure, the newOpenFlow-enabled HP 2920 Switch Series speeds data transfer by up to45 percent, while increasing performance by up to 100 percent.(11) Inaddition, the new HP 830 Unified/WLAN Switch eliminates the need topurchase up to 50 percent of traditional network access devices,including separate switches and controllers, while supporting up to1,000 wireless devices.(12) To help customers create an optimized, scalable wired and wireless infrastructure, HP is offering HP FlexNetwork Design and Validationand HP Wireless LAN Lifecycle Services. These services providevalidated and interoperable high-level designs and deviceconfigurations based on proven HP FlexNetwork referencearchitectures. HP's premier America's client event, HP Discover, takes place June11-13 in Las Vegas.