GOVERNMENT

HP today reached a major milestone in the history of information technology with the shipment of its 10 millionth HP ProLiant server. HP, which has delivered nearly as many x86 servers as its next two competitors combined, presented the 10 millionth industry-standard x86 server to longstanding customer Continental Airlines during a ceremony at HP's manufacturing facility in Houston. With an eye on shipping the next 10 million servers, HP announced several new systems and capabilities, including: -- an expansion of the industry's largest AMD Opteron portfolio with Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor-based two-processor servers; -- enhanced Factory Express configuration and installation service to HP BladeSystem customers; and -- a new HP Care Pack service offering integrated hardware and software implementation services for HP BladeSystem. "For seven years, Continental Airlines has viewed HP not as a vendor but as a trusted IT partner and advisor," said Bob Edwards, vice president, Technology Division, Continental Airlines. "HP has continually delivered ProLiant server technologies to help us efficiently manage our worldwide enterprise datacenter. It's an honor to be a part of this milestone and we look forward to the HP ProLiant innovations to come." HP, which shipped its first x86 processor-based ProLiant servers in 1993, has held the No. 1 ranking for worldwide x86 server shipments for 35 consecutive quarters -- nearly nine years. "Microsoft congratulates HP for achieving this major milestone. HP ProLiant servers running the Windows platform have earned a reputation for high reliability, scalability, manageability and performance in the most demanding applications," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president, Windows Server Division, Microsoft Corp. "We've been a long-time HP ProLiant customer, for work in our development labs, and long-time HP partner in delivering innovative solutions based on the best of our respective industry-standard technologies. We look forward to continued innovations with HP that deliver greater business value and reduce complexity for our customers." "HP is proud to celebrate this historic milestone with Continental Airlines and our thousands of other valuable ProLiant customers around the world," said Brad Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. "We reached this milestone through our commitment of innovating on standards and delivering customers choice. For more than 10 years, ProLiant has delivered leading management tools while simplifying and reducing IT costs within the data center." HP leads the way towards the next 10 million Continuing to innovate on industry standards, HP announced new Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers that redefine performance at the same power and density of single-core models. The new servers can boost certain enterprise application performance by more than 80 percent over traditional single-core processor systems. For example, in a recent two-processor, two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant BL35p supported 949 SAP SD Benchmark users and fully processed 95,330 order line items per hour. The server supported 432 more users and 43,660 more order line items per hour than the single-core BL35p did in a previous two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark, equaling a 84 percent performance improvement. During the same two-processor, two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark, the HP ProLiant BL25p supported 974 SAP SD Benchmark users and fully processed 97,670 order line items per hour. Additionally, the HP ProLiant DL385 supported 983 SAP SD Benchmark users and fully processed 98,330 order line items per hour. Highlighting the outstanding performance delivered by the HP ProLiant DL385, BL25p and BL35p, this benchmark positions these servers as the No. 1, 2 and 3 performers in the two-processor, two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark as of June 21, 2005.(2) HP's Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor-based two-processor servers announced today include: -- HP ProLiant DL385 - The DL385 delivers the design excellence with enterprise-class uptime and manageability found in its sister product and the world's best-selling server, the ProLiant DL380. The DL385 is well-suited to manage business-critical applications including databases, mail and messaging, and enterprise resource planning. More information on the HP ProLiant DL385 is available at www.hp.com/servers/proliantdl385. -- HP ProLiant DL145 G2 - The second-generation DL145 server is a high performance, 1U system that now supports Dual-Core AMD Opteron 200 Series processors. The affordable DL145 G2 is ideal for high-performance, technical applications and delivers essential, entry-level remote management to provide greater control of an IT infrastructure with less hassle and less risk for the small to mid-size business market. More information on the HP ProLiant DL145 G2 is available at www.hp.com/servers/proliantdl145. -- HP ProLiant BL25p and BL35p - Targeted for volume environments, the BL25p is now available with two Dual-Core AMD Opteron 200 Series processors. The BL35p, which is ideal for large enterprises or high-performance computing environments, can deliver uncompromising manageability, maximum compute density and significant power efficiencies enabling denser rack architectures. Both server blades are part of HP's BladeSystem, a total system approach to design that encompasses advanced management tools to integrate computing, storage, power and network resources into a virtualized, self-aware, automated environment. More information on the HP ProLiant BL25p and HP ProLiant BL35p for HP BladeSystem is available at www.hp.com/servers/bl25p and www.hp.com/servers/bl35p, respectively. HP also launched Factory Express services for the HP BladeSystem, which are designed to pre-integrate complete blade solutions into customer data centers. The solution is designed to get HP BladeSystem customers up and running quickly with minimal impact on the customer site or resources. Customers can choose how their HP BladeSystem solution -- including software, networking and storage -- is integrated, tested, shipped and deployed. More information on HP's Factory Express services is available at www.hp.com/go/factoryexpress. In addition, HP introduced installation and start-up services for HP BladeSystem infrastructures as part of its award-winning HP Care Pack services. Helping customers reduce implementation time and improve IT infrastructure uptime, this service includes installation of the HP BladeSystem enclosure and server hardware, software deployment and manageability enablement. Pricing and availability The dual-core HP ProLiant DL385, DL145 G2, BL25p and BL35p are expected to be available June 27. The dual-core DL385 starts at $3,299, the DL145 G2 at $1,219, the BL25p at $3,099 and the BL35p at $2,599. Service support for AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant servers HP Services has extended its wide range of HP Care Pack services, providing support for HP ProLiant AMD Opteron processor-based products throughout the complete lifecycle of the server. To speed technology adoption, HP offers a variety of installation, startup and training services. For customers needing high levels of application availability, HP has both hardware and software support services that provide speedy access to HP technical specialists for problem identification and resolution. More information on service for HP ProLiant servers is available at http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/cache/10768-0-0-225-121.html. More information on HP ProLiant servers is available at www.hp.com/go/proliant.