Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) launched two interoperable software suites Tuesday, as part of its “software ecosystem,” designed to help its customers develop, integrate and deploy electronic services and manage IT infrastructure.
The suite is “a move from a do-it-yourself model to a do-it-for-me model,” Carly Fiorina, the company’s chairman, CEO and president said in a videotaped message. The software, HP Netaction, is a response to the recent launch of products from rivals Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. HP also announced expansion of its HP Openview suite at a news conference in San Francisco.
Grouping together the portfolio HP received in its acquisition of Bluestone Software Inc. and HP’s own applications such as HP e-speak and HP Process Manager formed HP Netaction. The acquisition of Bluestone, announced in October, was completed three weeks ago.
What HP gained from Bluestone is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Java portfolio, allowing it to “bridge the gap between Java and [Microsoft’s] .NET,” said Duane Zitzner, president of HP Computing Systems.
“The service-centric computing model is where we see the world going, and software and middleware plays a crucial role in this reality,” he said.
HP also has integrated its own offerings with Bluestone’s to create integrated service management software, security software, Internet service tracking and billing, and e-services integration software, in the Netaction family.
The Netaction suite is built around open standards, or as P. Kevin Kilroy, vice president and general manager of HP’s Middleware Division, and former CEO of Bluestone put it, “HP is the Switzerland of IT vendors.”
He added, “We will standardize on standards, not on vendors.”
HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., can be reached at http://www.hp.com/.