Study: HP Data Center Management Solution Reduces Costs by 34 Percent

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 25, 2007 – HP today announced that its software platform for managing HP servers and storage can reduce data center operation costs by up to 34 percent, according to a study by research firm IDC and sponsored by HP.⁽¹⁾

The study found that HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) customers can achieve savings of $35,000 per 100 users over a three-year period, which represents a cost reduction of more than one-third and a 468 percent return on investment.

Additionally, HP SIM enables IT organizations to halve their server-to-administrator ratio and reduce unplanned downtime by as much as 77 percent, according to the study. A key product in HP’s Enterprise Storage and Server Software portfolio, HP SIM unifies infrastructure management for HP ProLiant, BladeSystem and Integrity servers as well as HP StorageWorks platforms.

Building on this foundation, HP has now added power capping and collaborative remote management capabilities to HP Insight Control, the unified infrastructure management portfolio for HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. The new capabilities can combat rising energy costs and more efficiently utilize IT staff and facilities.

Using the power capping capability on HP Insight Power Manager, a component of HP Insight Control, customers can increase server density by up to 70 percent through greater control of power usage in the data center.⁽²⁾ With this move, HP now delivers advanced power management to more server platforms than any major server vendor.

In addition, the company unveiled enhancements to HP ProLiant Essentials Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) to help customers achieve greater IT efficiency through collaborative remote management anytime, anywhere.

Power and cooling, as well as IT infrastructure management, are key enablers of HP’s Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio, which helps customers accelerate the move from high-cost IT silos to low-cost, pooled IT assets to increase flexibility and improve quality of service to drive better business outcomes.

“As the industry’s server management benchmark, HP SIM is helping customers improve business outcomes every day,” said Scott Farrand, vice president, Industry Standard Server Software, HP. “With the new management capabilities for HP SIM, HP customers can better control their energy-related costs, accelerate growth and mitigate risks.”

Powering up while cooling down
The new power capping capabilities of HP Insight Power Manager help customers optimize server density and power efficiency throughout the data center.

Using Insight Power Manager, customers can measure the average and peak power usage of their HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers and cap power at specific wattages to increase the number of servers in their racks or blade chassis. This helps reduce costs and mitigate risks by making the use of power and cooling resources more predictable.

Next generation of Lights-Out remote management
With Integrated Lights-Out 2, a plug-in application to HP SIM, customers are now able to efficiently manage their IT infrastructures and innovate through remote collaboration. iLO 2 also allows server administrators to more effectively diagnose and recover systems and develop broad resource skill levels across their IT staff.

“When trouble strikes a system in our network, we often need the skills of multiple experts who work in different locations,” said Yvonne Bueckert, network administrator, Sunrise Health Region. “HP’s new HP Integrated Lights-Out 2 collaboration functionality allows us to work and learn together remotely, as if we are meeting at the server. Complete information is critical and the console replay feature provides easy access to historical information and captures real-time corrective actions which improve knowledge transfer among our team. With iLO 2, we can much more effectively manage our server infrastructure and mitigate unnecessary risks.”

Through a shared remote console, the tool allows for up to four users to diagnose system issues and execute tasks. Through the console replay capability, users can document procedures, train others or share with others to troubleshoot a problem.

Services for server management
HP Services offers comprehensive services to help customers design, deploy, manage and support their Insight Control solution. HP Software Technical Support and Software Update services cover all key modules of the ProLiant Essentials portfolio, including Insight Control Environment and Integrated Lights-Out Power Management Pack.

More information is available at www.hp.com/services/insight.

Pricing and availability⁽³⁾

The power measurement and power capping capabilities now ship standard with Insight Power Manager, which starts at $99. HP ProLiant Essentials Integrated Lights-Out 2 is also now available and starts at $349.

More information on HP’s server management solutions is available at www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol.

About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $97.1 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.

Note to editors: More news from HP, including links to RSS feeds, is available at www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/.

⁽¹⁾ IDC white paper sponsored by HP, “Gaining Business Value and ROI with HP Systems Insight Manager,” Doc #206761, May 2007.

⁽²⁾ Based on internal HP test measuring power consumption of an HP ProLiant DL380 G5 server running at 45 percent CPU utilization for a period of 20 hours.

⁽³⁾ Estimated U.S. street prices. Actual prices may vary.