HP Launches New NonStop BladeSystem and RFID Service

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced its first Integrity NonStop BladeSystem for mission critical computing using bladed modularity and industry standard servers. The company also introduced the HP Factory Express RFID Service to help customers track critical data center assets.

Focal Points:

• HP unveiled the next generation Integrity NonStop BladeSystem, which doubles the performance and halves the footprint of the last generation. The new NonStop BladeSystem is constructed using HP's c-Class BladeSystem with Intel Corp. Itanium multi-core processors and standard SAS storage and network I/O. The new servers use the NonStop J-Series operating system and Cluster Essentials. The first boxes of the new blades are dual-core with quad-core processors expected next year. The servers are linearly scalable with up to 8,160 cores per system and 4,080 logical processors per system, according to HP, and are 100 percent software compatible and provide seamless clustering with prior systems.
• HP announced its Factory Express RFID Service, which is designed to track critical data center assets, such as HP factory-built servers, storage devices and rack enclosures. The service enables customers to continuously monitor the equipment as soon as it is received at their facilities without requiring workers to manually inventory each asset. HP offers RFID technology such as business applications, middleware, readers and tags for tracking, tracing, inventory management and security. The company also provides RFID consulting and integration services.
• The HP Factory Express RFID Service can be acquired directly through HP or its channel partners in the U.S. and Canada, or as part of HP Factory Express, a broad portfolio of pre-priced, configured and integrated factory solutions and deployment services. The service will be extended to customers worldwide over the next 12 months. Two levels of service are available. The Standard Service includes standard generation-two RFID tags affixed to specific HP products or packaging with a unique Electronic Product Code assignment and data tracking capabilities. The Express Custom Service allows for customized RFID tag placement and additional RFID services from HP that transmit RFID tracking information from the factory to the customer. The service costs between $5 and $10 for each individual tag.

Experton Group believes executives are no longer willing to pay the added uplifts for fully proprietary high availability systems and expect to solve the majority of their needs through industry standard offerings. HP's migration of its primary NonStop hardware to standard servers and devices while keeping the NonStop software as the core enables HP to strengthen the brand and the margins while providing customers solutions more tailored to their needs and desires. IT executives with high availability requirements should carefully scrutinize their actual needs and the weigh the differences between standard server solutions and unique high availability offerings. Additionally, IT executives must realize that the achievement of high availability requires the right people and processes be in place as well as the technology.

Experton Group finds asset management to be a growing problems for large enterprises, especially those with multiple data centers spread across several geographies. With constant change occurring as new assets are added, moved, or removed, IT executives need automated solutions that can keep an accurate track of inventory and thereby lower operational costs and risks. IT executives should employ asset tracking technologies that capture and monitor assets from the time they belong to the firm until they are retired or returned.