GOVERNMENT

PALO ALTO, CA -- Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) today released an open, enhanced specification for blade servers. Called OpenBlade, the specification is designed to drive the development of standards-based blade server architectures and provide customers with interoperable, multi-vendor blade server solutions. In addition, HP announced a fivefold increase in the number of partners in the HP Blade Server Alliance Program, demonstrating broad industry support of HP's blade server products and strategy. The new OpenBlade specification extends and complements the existing CompactPCI(R) (cPCI) standards(1) through the addition enterprise computing functionality, such as Fibre Channel connections to SAN and NAS storage as well as remote management capabilities through the use of an on-board management LAN. As a leader in the CompactPCI market and member of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, Force Computers supports the OpenBlade standards-based architecture. "Thanks to HP's adherence to the CompactPCI standard, our server blade board smoothly integrates into the HP Blade Server platform," said Chris Williams, vice president and general manager, Boards Business Unit, Force Computers. "Our technology, traditionally found in the telecom space, now provides a new enterprise solution." The HP Blade Server Alliance Program, designed to deliver complete, reliable, end-to-end blade solutions, now has well over 100 partners, including Intel(R), Oracle(R) and Microsoft(R). This represents a fivefold increase in the number of partners since the program and HP's standards-based blade server products were announced two months ago. Partners participating in the HP Blade Server Alliance Program enjoy technical and business benefits, including access to HP Blade Server equipment, hardware and software development kits, a certification process and marketing services. "Integrating our mobility/wireless enabling software with the HP Blade Server platform was made dramatically easier with HP's strict adherence to the CompactPCI standard guidelines," said Steve Koskie, president, chief executive officer and founder, OceanLake. "Our task was further simplified by the HP Blade Server Alliance Program, which facilitated our integration efforts. Partnering with large companies can be a challenge, but our experience with HP in driving blade server solutions has been outstanding." First to market of any major server vendor, HP's blade server products include server, storage, appliance, network switch and management blades operating in a highly compact unit. Enterprises, telecommunications companies and service providers can streamline management and reduce costs by using these flexible, efficient, easy-to-manage products. "We see almost unlimited opportunity for HP and Novell in the blade server market," said Craig Miller, vice president and general manager, Net Management, Novell. "Novell's NetWare 6 will make the management of multiple blade servers extremely easy. Its inherent scalability allows it to be deployed on one or two blade servers in a rack or in a high-end enterprise with a densely populated rack of clustered blades. This technology opens the door to new opportunities for vendors and, using the economies of scale provided by blade servers, enables improved, cost-effective networking for customers." Partners who are interested in joining the HP Blade Server Alliance Program or obtaining the OpenBlade specifications can register at the HP Developer and Solution Partner Portal at http://www.hp.com/dspp