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Time for IT to transform

By Tracy Burrows, ITWeb contributor.
Johannesburg, 23 Sept 2014
President Ntuli, HP Servers Country Manager for the Enterprise Group.
President Ntuli, HP Servers Country Manager for the Enterprise Group.

In the face of the rising IT mega trends, IT has to transform as business does, says HP.

President Ntuli, HP Servers Country Manager for the Enterprise Group, says the days of non-responsive, siloed IT infrastructure are over. "IT has to change. It has to be agile, responsive and enable rapid time to market," he says.

Ntuli points out that the emerging mega trends and changing the face of business and IT the world over. "You have cloud, a wave of mobility as workers move away from the desk, big data and convergence."

"The server as we knew it has changed. Now, customers want access to an always-available compute platform that is available anytime and can be located anywhere. It must be highly scalable and deliver the right compute for the right workload."

Meeting this need for transformation, HP this month began its phased launch the HP Proliant Gen9 family of solutions. To be staggered over the next three to six months, the launch of Gen9 takes computing closer to the dynamic, integrated and converged 'compute environment' ideal, says HP.

Ntuli says HP began this journey toward meeting the new compute needs of organisations some years ago, through converged infrastructure, then converged systems. "At the time we first brought converged infrastructure solutions to the market, South Africa was a little behind the global adoption curve," he says. "Now, South Africa has caught up with global trends, and we see the same demand here as elsewhere for faster time to market, moving IT from a cost centre to a revenue centre, and optimising the compute environment."

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In South Africa, as is the case around the world, customers are battling to meet their changing data centre needs, says Ntuli. "In many cases, their infrastructure is outdated. They face issues around facilities, space, and meeting growing power needs. Many are looking to IaaS both to move from a capex to an opex model, and to overcome the space and power challenges." Virtualisation, he notes, can deliver significant space and power savings.

In this new compute environment, hardware infrastructure alone is not enough to meet the changing needs of business, says Ntuli. Enterprises also need a platform to manage the compute, storage and networking components in a simplified way. HP's OneView promises to meet this demand.

Gen9 builds on HPs plan to deliver a truly enabling compute environment to enterprises, says Ntuli. The launch, to be backed by a series of workshops and events over the next few months, is already raising keen interest in the market. Through over 2 000 HP ServiceOne Enterprise partners across the world and the introduction of the new proactive care customer services, HP aims to ensure that Gen9's arrival in South Africa helps take the country's enterprises to the next level of compute.

In summarising, the key technology benefits for Gen9 customers include:

* 3 x compute capacity with lower TCO redefining compute economics
* 66 x faster service delivery providing our customers competitive advantage
* 4 x faster performance to boost business performance and drive business growth

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Tracy Burrows
HP Gen9