Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday unveiled new software, hardware and consulting services in an effort to help companies free up IT dollars from daily system maintenance to focus on innovation.
“A large majority of IT is spent on managing the day-to-day operations of that infrastructure,” said Chris Christianopoulos, BladeSystem and ProLiant business development manager with HP.
New global research from HP shows that only 30 per cent of IT budgets are allocated to new technologies. Moreover, 70 per cent of respondents indicate they are unable to invest in new technologies to meet changing business needs.
The announcements include a new version of HP Integrated Lights-Out Advanced (iLO 3) software that is meant to provide simplified server setup, power, thermal and system health management. iLO 3 is embedded in newly available Generation 7 HP ProLiant servers, DL360 G7 and DL380 G7. The new servers, according to Christianopoulos, deliver a 27 times performance-per-watt increase.
iLO 3 helps IT pros work more efficiently by remotely managing platforms, said Christianopoulos. “It takes the IT administrator away from having to travel to the technology sitting in a data centre, and being able to do it remotely,” he said.
For customers running virtualized environments, HP is now expanding its multi-vendor x86 support through HP Mission Critical Partnership. It’s also offering a set of expert recommendations and priority improvements through a new HP IT Service Management Assessment for Virtualized Environments.
Christianopoulos said management is key in any virtual environment in that customers can reap efficiency if they can manage their virtual infrastructure like they do their physical. “It’s around commonality of management,” he said. “The more you can do with tool consolidation, the greater operational efficiency you’re going to recognize as well.”
HP is offering some customers a workshop to understand how to modernize an IT environment that has legacy applications and complexity through HP Applications Modernization Transformation Experience.
And, the new HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) is targeted at companies that want to accelerate the deployment of their private or public clouds.
Tuesday’s slew of announcements is in line with HP’s drive to offer a portfolio that is a combination of both products and consulting services. The new offerings aimed at helping customers build an overall more efficient IT infrastructure also aligns with HP’s belief that the vendor battle will be fought across a variety of technologies in the data centre.
At an HP event in April, CEO Mark Hurd said the company’s approach is to provide to customers offerings that don’t just focus on one area, but on servers, storage and networking.
With files from Jeff Jedras of Computer Dealer News
Follow Kathleen Lau on Twitter: @KathleenLau
