Subscribe

HP accelerates cloud evolution

New data centre services, HP VirtualSystems solutions and HP CloudSystem programs streamline cloud adoption.


Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2011

HP today announced new services and solutions based on HP Converged Infrastructure that empower service providers and enterprises to rapidly deliver cloud services, while leveraging existing investments, minimising risk and lowering costs.

Organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver IT resources on demand to gain agility, increase competitive advantage and meet customer expectations.

Legacy data centres, rigid IT architectures and technology sprawl are key barriers to implementing new delivery models such as IT as a service and cloud computing. Adopting the right cloud strategy for the client's organisation is critical to success.

HP's new offerings include:

* HP Technology Consulting Services for data centre strategy, operations and continuity accelerate planning, design and building of cloud data centres by up to 40%, while driving alignment between IT, facility operations and the business.(1)
* Expanded HP CloudSystem portfolio includes financing, services, developer resources and 100 new HP Cloud Centres of Excellence worldwide - 50 in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. These centres enable clients to experience HP CloudSystem, the industry's most complete, integrated and open platform for building and managing services across private, public and hybrid cloud environments.
* HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft and HP VirtualSystem for Superdome 2/HP-UX are new turnkey hardware and software solutions for rapidly deploying highly optimised, fully tested virtualised application environments. Using tailored consulting and HP Support services, clients can deploy standardised blocks of applications for thousands of users in hours versus months.(2)

“Clients want our help in speeding their transition to cloud computing with proven methodologies and solutions based on HP Converged Infrastructure so they can increase innovation in their markets and better serve their customers,” said David McMurdo, Industry Standard Servers, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP South Africa. “Our new offerings clearly reflect the best of HP's skills and technology in driving this evolution for clients, while reducing complexity, costs and risk.”

Transforming data centre for cloud era

Legacy data centres need a critical transformation to prepare for cloud computing. They must be architected with shorter planning cycles to deliver services instantly, while optimising operations and improving reliability of those services. This requires better alignment, communications and planning across the organisation.

HP services address data centre strategy, operations and continuity with the expertise, guidance and proven methodologies clients need to succeed.

* Data centre strategy services reduce time-to-transformation by 40% by allowing planning, design and build processes to run concurrently.(1) As a result, clients can accelerate decision making and investment strategies by broadening program communications with executives.
* Data centre operations services lower a facility's lifetime costs up to 37% with design-build improvements for infrastructure integration and facility planning that increase operational efficiency.(2)
* Data centre continuity services allow service providers to easily predict facility and IT infrastructure failures before they occur. With the modular services portfolio, clients can choose the HP Continuous Improvement Program to address availability gaps and reduce unplanned downtime, the HP Reliability Assurance Program to improve continuity, or the HP Disaster Recovery Readiness assessment to identify planning gaps.

Expanding HP CloudSystem platform

HP CloudSystem is ideal for enterprises and service providers who want to deliver private and public cloud services ranging from compute to Software as a Service. With HP CloudSystem, clients can deploy a new cloud service in minutes or hours, not the weeks or months that a manual method requires. New financing, services and developer resources further extend the value of HP CloudSystem.

* With HP CloudSystem Financing (3), part of the company's programme to provide up to $2 billion in financing for cloud projects, qualified customers have easy options to make the move to cloud affordable.

First, they can choose a payment plan that can allow them to build their cloud environments without large upfront capital expenditures. This is critical for chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) looking for a level of predictability with the IT investments they make. Additionally, as part of the HP CloudAgile programme for qualified service providers, HP can offer a step payment plan, where payments start small and increase over six to 12 months, so those service providers can ramp their business and better align expenditures with revenue growth.

* HP CloudSystem Enablement Services offer predefined consulting and integration services that accelerate the build-out of a client's first set of cloud services. The new HP AllianceONE resource center for CloudSystem empowers independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators and service providers with a quick-start toolkit that includes sample code, video demonstrations and expert tips.

* New HP Cloud Centres of Excellence allow key HP channel partners to provide clients with fast, convenient access to live demonstrations of HP cloud solutions based on HP CloudSystem. The centres allow clients to more easily evaluate, test and deploy cloud-based solutions while evaluating their optimal path to the cloud.

Optimising application service deployment, management

Virtualisation is often a foundation for building a cloud infrastructure. With HP VirtualSystems, enterprises and service providers can quickly deploy blocks of applications and capacity to support thousands of users. Running major applications in virtualised environments drives greater flexibility, improved efficiency and lower costs.

* HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft speeds the virtualisation and delivery of diverse, business-critical workloads such as Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Server. Through a single console, clients can track application services and pinpoint and resolve issues without downtime across hardware infrastructure, operating system, hypervisor and Microsoft applications.

* HP Virtual System for Superdome 2/HP-UX accelerates the path to virtualised mission-critical workloads including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and core financial applications on HP Integrity systems. The combination of HP-UX 11i v3 and HP Integrity Superdome 2 is tuned for mission-critical applications, delivering the highest levels of resiliency, scalability and virtualisation performance.

In a world of continuous connectivity, the HP Converged Infrastructure is a key element to delivering the Instant-On Enterprise. The Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

HP's premier client event, HP DISCOVER, takes place from 29 November to 1 December in Vienna, Austria. The event showcases how organisations can get started on their Instant-On Enterprise journeys.

Additional information is available at http://www.hp.com/go/HPCloudInnovation.

Share

HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.co.za.

(1) Based on client comparisons.
(2) Based on internal HP testing.
(3) Financing available through Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company or one of its affiliates and is subject to credit approval and execution of standard HP Financial Services documentation. Other restrictions may apply. HP Financial Services reserves the right to change or cancel the information contained herein at any time without notice.

Microsoft is a US registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialise or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including execution of growth strategies, transformation initiatives and restructuring plans; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP's businesses; the development and transition of new products and services (and the enhancement of existing products and services) to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the protection of HP's intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; expectations and assumptions relating to the execution and timing of growth strategies, transformation initiatives and restructuring plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2011 and HP's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2010. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

(c) 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Editorial contacts