INDUSTRY

HP today announced additions to its portfolio of server and storage management software and services to help customers save time and costs, streamline and automate the management of IT operations, and build a high-performing infrastructure with HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. The new software provides advanced management for server and bladed environments, helps automate IT processes, and puts customers in control of their IT resources by providing enhanced power, performance and asset management. With these new features, customers can optimize server density by up to 40 percent based on accurate power and thermal measurements, add new Linux capabilities, and reduce administrator time spent managing servers, warranty information and support services. The offerings include HP Insight Control Environment, HP Systems Insight Manager version 5.1, HP Insight Power Manager, HP Service Essentials Remote Support Pack and HP Insight Control Linux Edition. “Quixtar IT depends on HP Systems Insight Manager and ProLiant Essentials to deploy, monitor and control our ProLiant and BladeSystem hardware,” said Steve Keselring, manager of IT Infrastructure at Quixtar, an Ada, Mich.-based company that helps entrepreneurs create web-based businesses. “These tools have saved us considerable time and money to date, and we eagerly await the release of the new Insight Control suites, which will enable us to get all of the management capabilities we need in one package with streamlined installation, updates and licensing.” The new software tools and services are important enhancements to HP’s Unified Infrastructure Management offering, which is a key enabler of the company’s Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio. HP’s Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio helps companies improve their IT organizations by speeding change and delivering improved cost efficiencies and quality of service. “With simplified purchase options, integrated access to services information and the introduction of power management, we are helping our customers to optimize their server and storage infrastructure and reduce the operational costs of managing growth and change,” said Lee Johns, director, volume software, Enterprise Servers and Storage, HP. Simplified systems management solutions Updates to HP’s Unified Infrastructure Management portfolio include: - HP Insight Control Environment delivers comprehensive management of HP ProLiant ML and DL servers through integrated management suites with streamlined licensing and installation. HP Insight Control Environment includes monitoring, deployment, power management, performance management, and vulnerability and patch management built on an HP Systems Insight Manager 5.1 foundation. - HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) 5.1 provides a single pane of glass to unify the management of HP servers and storage and drive down operational costs by reducing unplanned downtime, simplifying inventory management and providing core management services for the Insight Control Environment. A key new feature of SIM 5.1 is warranty and service contract reporting, which dramatically reduces asset tracking complexities faced by enterprise customers. This information can then be used for total cost of operations and cost reduction analyses. In addition, SIM 5.1 offers enhancements in the areas of security, ease of use and third-party application integration. - HP Insight Power Manager helps customers optimize server density and power efficiency throughout the data center. By accurately measuring and reporting power consumption and inlet air temperature across groups of ProLiant or BladeSystem servers at the rack or data center level, systems administrators now have the tools to confidently forecast power and cooling requirements as opposed to consistently over-provisioning these resources. In addition, allowing administrators to set power regulation policies across server groups reduces power consumption by ensuring that application workloads receive the power they need instead of the maximum power available. - HP Service Essentials Remote Support Pack integrates with HP SIM to provide “phone-home-to-HP” services for any HP ProLiant or Linux-based HP Integrity servers and their associated internal devices under warranty, HP Care Pack or service contract with HP. This combines the core hardware management value of SIM with new service and support tools to deliver improved warranty and contracts management, optional automated support calls to HP, intelligent event analysis and advanced troubleshooting. Using its support centers, HP can respond more quickly to customer inquiries and ensure greater accuracy in fulfilling the replacement process of warranted part failures. - HP Insight Control Linux Edition, which replaces HP ControlTower, delivers server blade management, deployment and task execution for HP BladeSystem Linux environments. Built on Linux from the ground up and now supporting the newly released HP BladeSystem c-Class, the software integrates with OnBoard Administrator and Integrated Lights-Out 2 to provide customers a management solution ideal for scale-out Linux infrastructures. - New installation and start-up service options for HP Insight Control offerings help customers get software up and running quickly and economically. - Updated Software Technical Support HP Care Pack offering that now combines comprehensive HP ProLiant Essentials and Insight Control software support and software updates. Available today, the products have starting prices per server as follows: HP Insight Control Environment for HP ProLiant ML or DL servers, $549; HP Insight Power Manager, $99; and HP Insight Control Linux Edition, $199. More information on HP’s server management solutions is available at www.hp.com/servers/manage. More information on HP ProLiant Essentials services is available at its Web site.