HP Strengthens BladeSystem Converged Infrastructure

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HP this week announced significant enhancements to its BladeSystem c-Class portfolio. (Photo: HP)

At the 2013 HP Global Partner conference in Las Vegas this week, HP announced several new innovations in converged infrastructure.  The event conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #HPGPC.

HP BladeSystem c7000

HP announced significant enhancements to its BladeSystem c-Class portfolio, with three new components, including the BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure, a new HP ProLiant WS460c Generation 8 Server blade and major enhancements to its HP Virtual Connect product family. The new HP BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure improves efficiencies, simplifies management and optimizes power while remaining compatible with previous generations of HP blade servers and interconnects. It features the new SX1018 HP Ethernet switch, with 40Gb downlinks to each blade server. It includes HP SmartMemory, a Three Rank (3R) 24GB Registered DIMM, which enables a 25 percent increase in speed over previous generations. The c7000 also features location and power discovery tools to allow customers to track server locations remotely from a central console.

HP Virtual Connect 4.0 was introduced, as a network management tool to simplify connectivity, enable troubleshooting and boost network reliability. It extends comprehensive integration with existing enterprise networking environments. It features real-time network flow monitoring, and enhanced quality of service (QoS). A new HP ProLiant WS460c Gen8 workstation server blade can support virtualized client solutions with high-density 3-D graphics and eight GPUs per blade. Enabling four times more users per workstation, the WS460c can reduce costs by up to 60 percent per user compared to previous generations.

"Adopting a virtualized platform can be a daunting task as many organizations lack the scalable infrastructure required to grow their businesses,” said Chuck Smith, vice president and general manager, Blades to Cloud Business Unit, Industry Standard Servers and  Software, HP. “The additions to the HP BladeSystem portfolio provides built in flexibility to accommodate future technology innovations. HP has elevated our blade offerings and allows customers to prepare their current infrastructure for virtualization while providing our channel partners with new revenue opportunities.”

HP StoreVirtual Storage Systems

HP announced new StoreVirtual systems based on ProLiant Gen8 technology and LeftHand OS 10. The new systems include reliability and availability enhancements optimized for virtualization projects.  Anew channel-only midrange storage solution was also announced, that combines HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage and HP StoreOnce Backup functionality to deliver primary block-and-file storage with information protection in a single system.

New StoreVirtual 4530 and 4730 storage systems feature 10 times greater memory, four times larger cache and 10 gigabit iSCSI native connectivity on all models. With 3TB drives the new systems deliver 50 percent more density than its predecessor. HP StoreVirtual Storage features all-inclusive software licensing, expansive enterprise class storage features and low deployment cost.

Unified wired and wireless BYOD solution

HP announced new unified wired and wireless solutions that deliver a simple, scalable and secure network supporting bring-yourown-device (BYOD) initiatives while creating incremental. The offerings also enable partners to leverage the HP FlexNetwork architecture to better support their clients’ BYOD essentials with new device on-boarding and provisioning functionalities through a single management application and automated security with software-defined networks (SDN) technology, while being supported by mobility connectivity services.

“Organizations are struggling to deploy BYOD solutions within a complex, legacy infrastructure that spans two separate networks and management applications,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager, Networking, HP. “HP’s complete unified BYOD solution is the first to solve this issue and—combined with HP’s comprehensive training, programs and services—will create new, profitable opportunities for partners.”

To double network scalability over legacy infrastructure, the new OpenFlow-enabled HP 2920 Switch Series speeds data transfer by up to 45 percent, while increasing performance by up to 100 percent. Additionally, the new HP 830 Unified/WLAN Switch eliminates the need to purchase up to 50 percent of traditional network access devices, including separate switches and controllers, while supporting up to 1,000 wireless devices.