Hewlett-Packard on Thursday strengthened its mission-critical converged infrastructure portfolio with innovative and enhanced HP Integrity and Superdome 2 systems, HP-UX software and services to triple performance, boost resiliency and deliver investment protection for critical workloads deployed into the next decade.

Based on HP enhancements and the Intel Itanium 9500-series, transactions are processed up to three times faster than previous generations, while using 21% less energy. As a result, clients can realize a 33% savings in total cost of ownership (TCO). With advancements in availability and reliability, HP’s mission-critical converged infrastructure will continue to enhance established HP Integrity platforms supporting HP-UX, HP NonStop and OpenVMS operating systems. Over time, these advancements will cascade to mission-critical x86 platforms delivering a single, unified infrastructure for UNIX, Windows Server and Linux environments.

The newest solutions offer the scalability, continuous availability and efficiency needed by clients to achieve their mission-critical business goals and improve productivity. The new offerings include:

• A faster, more robust HP Superdome 2, with new blades and advancements to HP’s flagship server that provide high availability for mission-critical workloads. HP Superdome 2 now offers a boost in scalability and performance with double the number of cores. Increased reliability also is achieved with enhancements that provide built-in intelligence that enables proactive detection, analysis and repair of errors;
• Three new HP Integrity server blades for the HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure, providing unique workload flexibility with the industry’s only electrically isolated hard-partitioning capabilities that fully isolate workloads without compromising data integrity. The new server blades utilize up to 21% less power with new low-voltage, dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). They also improve efficiency with the new Intel Itanium 9500 processors. The new server blades include the HP Integrity BL860c i4, which scales up to two sockets; the HP Integrity BL870c i4, with up to four socket configurations; and the HP Integrity BL890c i4, with up to eight sockets.
• A new entry-class HP Integrity rx2800 i4 server for branch offices or expanding businesses that is certified for reduced energy use;
• HP-UX advancements that deliver enhanced security and management to speed threat detection and optimize resource utilization;
• New advisory workshop services, financing programs and cost assessment tools to assist clients in optimizing their mission-critical environment.

“Our mission-critical clients face ever-increasing demands for uptime, performance and security with their most critical applications. Today’s announcement demonstrates HP’s continued commitment to transform the server landscape with innovations to the Integrity portfolio – offered within a mission-critical Converged Infrastructure that will endure into the future,” said Ric Lewis, vice president and interim general manager of business critical systems and converged application systems at HP.

New enhancements to HP-UX 11iv3 enable clients to:

• Improve security with a new common log file that delivers up to 10 times faster threat detection than previous generations;
• Simplify management with HP Capacity Advisor’s new analysis tool that identifies idle and under- or over-utilized servers to increase server efficiency;
• Double the size of HP-UX workloads supported within the same data center footprint with up to 256 cores per server.

HP also has introduced the HP Platform Advisory Workshop to assist clients in planning future mission-critical environments or transitioning from legacy servers to HP Integrity with recommendations for optimization, migration and risk mitigation. Upon completion, clients receive a customized blueprint of their organization’s ideal transition path to the newest HP Integrity systems.

The first new HP Integrity systems, including the Superdome 2 server blades, will be available worldwide beginning next month at a starting price of $6490 per blade. The HP Platform Advisory Workshop services are available worldwide with pricing based on location and implementation.

Tags: Intel, Itanium, Poulson, 32nm, IA64, Kittson, Tukwila, Bull, Hitachi, HP, Inspur, NEC, HP-UX, OpenVMS, NonStop, GCOS, ACOS, Unix