General15.05.2012

HP Delivers Increased Performance, Automation with New HP ProLiant Gen8 Servers

New partner program, support offerings and financing available worldwide

HP recently extended its HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) portfolio with new servers that deliver increased performance, simplified maintenance and improved data center uptime.

HP also announced new financial, support and partner programs, including the HP ProActive Insight Architecture Alliance, which brings together some of the world’s leading technology companies to eliminate manual maintenance tasks and significantly improve data center efficiency.

With HP ProLiant Gen8 and its expanded ecosystem of programs, HP is helping organisations transform technology silos to efficient, highly automated IT infrastructures that allow as many as 30 days a year to be reallocated from maintenance tasks to innovation that fuels growth.(1)

Delivering greater computing opportunities
The expanded HP ProLiant Gen8 line-up includes new servers based on the latest AMD Opteron™ 6200 Series processors, Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 product family and Intel® Xeon® processor E5-4600 product family. Optional enhanced HP PCIe Gen2 IO Accelerators that reduce data access latency enable clients to achieve accelerated application performance and improved compute cycles.

To address the growing requirements that span from small and mid-size businesses up to enterprise organisations, HP is offering new HP ProLiant Gen8 rack-and-tower servers and a new blade server with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family:
• HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8, a rack-optimised one-rack-unit (1U) server that delivers improved serviceability and supports a range of small, mid-size and enterprise organisations.
• HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8, a rack-optimised two-rack-unit (2U) design that provides improved compute and storage capacity for data center applications.
• HP ProLiant ML350e Gen8, an expandable two-processor (2P) tower that delivers enterprise-level performance to remote and branch office environments.
• HP ProLiant BL420c Gen8, a blade server ideal for midmarket and cost-sensitive enterprise customers, offering enhanced manageability for applications requiring high availability and performance.

HP also is adding AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor support to its HP ProLiant Gen8 line-up, with:
• HP ProLiant DL385p, a 2U performance-based rack server designed for virtualisation, database and high performance computing workloads.
• HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8, the first server blade with 2,000 cores per rack for virtualisation, database and high-performance workloads.

The HP ProLiant family of scale-up servers also will add support for the Intel Xeon E5-4600 processor in new, density-optimised form factors for both blade and rack servers. These will begin shipping in volume in the summer.

An ecosystem that maximises built-in intelligence, delivers leading performance
The HP ProActive Insight Architecture Alliance is focused on maximising the built-in intelligence of HP ProLiant Gen8 servers. Alliance members are leaders in the memory, storage, input/output (I/0), power and infrastructure segments. They design technology that meets HP ProActive Insight Architecture standards to help analyse thousands of system parameters, and deliver high levels of automation, aiding in the reduction of data center downtime caused by manual errors.

Technology contributed by alliance members is intelligently integrated with HP ProLiant Gen8 to enable the communication of alerts, metrics and other critical system analytics to the HP Insight Online support portal. Clients that leverage HP’s service feature to troubleshoot issues and optimise performance can decrease their problem-resolution time by as much as 40 percent, reducing potential downtime.(2)

Additionally, HP is working with leading global software companies, such as Microsoft Corp, Red Hat, SAP and VMware to set industry-leading performance benchmarks with HP ProLiant Gen8 servers. Details on these breakthrough results can be viewed at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/benchmarks/index.html.

Increasing client productivity with customer support and financing
HP Proactive Care provides clients comprehensive “direct to expert” support and services for problem resolution that is up to 66 percent faster.(3) This eliminates the delay spent cycling through escalating levels of support and minimises downtime.

Integrating server diagnostic data with automation tools in HP ProLiant Gen 8 servers provides clients an unmatched support experience for optimisation, cost-effectiveness and problem prevention.

To help clients speed time to adoption and maximise their investments, a “ProLiant Gen8 Capabilities and Technologies” course is now available through HP Education Services.

The new HP Financial Services Refresh for Less program provides organisations with the opportunity to transition to HP ProLiant Gen8 without requiring capital budget so they can realise immediate operational savings. HP Financial Services can further ease customer transition from legacy servers with capabilities ranging from trade-ins and logistics, to renewal, remarketing and recycling services.
HP Gen8 unlocks value for thousands of new customers
HP has delivered HP ProLiant Gen8 servers to thousands of new clients, including Bitedefender, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Garanti Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Purdue University, Raytheon, University Hospitals Leuven and Verint.

“As a leader in scientific research to improve patient care, we require a technology infrastructure that can help us evaluate medical advances while eliminating costly, time-consuming manual operations,” said Reinoud Reynders, IT manager, Infrastructure and Operations, University Hospitals Leuven. “The intelligent technologies built into the HP ProLiant Gen8 servers automate most of these tasks, saving us hours of administration time and decreasing operational expenses.”

Pricing and availability
Pricing and the new HP ProLiant Gen8 platforms are expected to be available through HP and worldwide channel partners beginning in June.

HP’s premier client event, HP Discover takes place June 4-7 in Las Vegas

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