HP today introduced a new version of the HP-UX 11i operating system and new HP Integrity servers to help make mission-critical virtualization practical for businesses of all sizes. The latest release of HP's strategic UNIX operating environment, HP-UX 11i v3, makes virtualization easier to deploy and delivers mission-critical virtualization by combining virtualization and mainframe-class availability. Also, with HP-UX 11i v3, important applications, including business intelligence and data warehousing, are now simpler to secure and manage. Additionally, HP strengthened its HP Integrity server lineup with a model for BladeSystem c-Class environments and a new rack-optimized unit, the Integrity rx2660 entry-class server. The HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade is the first Integrity model designed for the HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio, HP's breakthrough blade architecture. The HP Integrity rx2660 is the lowest-priced Integrity rack-mount server and the most flexible and versatile unit in its UNIX server class. Along with HP-UX 11i v3, the two new servers deliver mission-critical virtualization on a standards-based platform to help create an Adaptive Infrastructure in any enterprise. "We evaluated the HP Integrity rx2660 server and found it to be a great match for the Alcatel-Lucent Optical Management System," Harvey Lieber, technical manager, Alcatel-Lucent. "With increased performance at a lower price point, the Integrity rx2660 delivers everything HP promises. It's a great server for our customers' mission-critical computing requirements." Going beyond virtualization Virtualization, which allows IT resources to be pooled and shared so that supply of resources can meet business demands, is transforming IT in data centers worldwide. The HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) allows HP-UX 11i to go a step further and has integrated virtualization and mainframe-class availability to deliver mission-critical virtualization for customers with the most demanding workloads. HP has broadened the functionality and simplified the deployment of its mission-critical virtualization capabilities for HP-UX 11i. " Deployments of virtualized environments are simpler due to the addition of four new VSE Reference Architectures, including ones for Oracle, SAP software and shared services based on HP's own application server and database implementations. These reference architectures can help cut a customer's deployment time in half. " Mainframe-class availability has been enhanced via HP Serviceguard clustering enhancements, including faster user transparent failover for SAP and the introduction of new levels of disaster tolerance via cascading failover across three data centers. The new HP-UX 11i v3 UNIX operating system is designed to meet growing needs of business applications to address today's and tomorrow's most demanding workloads and is enhanced in a host of other critical areas. For instance, it is architected to address up to 100 million zettabytes of highly available, secure storage (1 zettabyte = 1 billion terabytes). In addition, it has new hot-swap and online patching capabilities that reduce planned and unplanned downtime, and its automation features help minimize operational costs. As with every new HP-UX release, existing customers' investments in the HP-UX 11i operating system are protected through binary compatibility. This means applications that ran on the previous release will run unchanged on HP-UX 11i v3 but have the added benefit of running an average of 30 percent faster. Bringing blade flexibility and power efficiency to Integrity customers Extending HP's "blade everything" strategy, the new HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade is a versatile, multi-operating system server. It brings the blade advantages of power efficiency, consolidation and flexibility to Integrity server customers, while expanding the workload capabilities and choices for HP blade customers. Leveraging the innovative HP BladeSystem c-Class design, the BL860c is ideal for demanding database-intensive applications and scientific computing environments. The server blade also offers a powerful virtualization engine for application consolidation, which can help drive down total cost of ownership. In addition, the Integrity BL860c shares the same BladeSystem c7000 enclosure with other HP ProLiant and HP StorageWorks blades. The new HP Integrity rx2660 entry-class server handles robust application tier workloads and is versatile enough for porting, application serving, testing and development. Cost-effective for small deployments, it offers business-critical computing and HP-UX strengths, such as VSE, HP Serviceguard and HP Systems Insight Manager, to customers of all sizes. The rx2660 also beats Sun servers on their home turf: Java performance. As demonstrated by the recent SPECjAppServer2004 and SPECjbb2005 benchmark results, the rx2660 delivers leadership performance for Java 2 Enterprise Edition applications and Java business workloads. "Since implementing HP-UX and Integrity servers, we cut the cost of ownership of our technology platform almost in half and significantly improved performance at the same time," said Ian Chapple, group IT director, Royal London. "The innovation around HP-UX is strategically important to our virtualization and cost-saving efforts, especially with HP Integrity servers and Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processors. That's why we're committed to HP-UX 11i for the long term." Channel partner focus HP continues to expand and equip expert channel partners with technical expertise and resources to broaden the market reach of virtualization to enterprises of all sizes. HP VSE for HP-UX 11i, together with Serviceguard and the new HP Integrity servers with HP-UX 11i, provide important growth engines for HP channel partners. "The offerings introduced today help HP to deliver greater value and benefits in areas that customers care most about, such as virtualization," said Martin Fink, senior vice president and general manager, Business Critical Systems, HP. "Our latest HP-UX release, server offerings and channel programs bring mission-critical virtualization to a broader range of customers moving toward a 24x7 lights-out, next-generation data center." Pricing and availability A base configuration of the HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade has a starting U.S. list price of $3,827 and is expected to begin shipping in March. A base configuration of the HP Integrity rx2660 entry-class server has a starting U.S. list price of $4,931 and is shipping now. HP has lowered prices for HP-UX 11i and much of its supporting software. The HP-UX 11i v3 operating system is shipping now. More information about HP-UX and the newest HP Integrity servers is available at its Web site.