HP Unveils Industry's First Multi-processor Blade Server Architecture for
the Enterprise
Caprice Fimbres
Blanc & Otus Public Relations
direct: 415.856.5150
cell: 415.336.4492
HP Unveils Industry's First
Multi-processor Blade Server Architecture for the Enterprise
Enables Customers to Achieve Adaptive Infrastructures
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 26, 2002 -- HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced the
industry's first multi-processor blade server architecture -- the HP
ProLiant BL p-Class system, which provides customers with high performance
and high availability for enterprise applications.
First to market with the concept of blade servers in 2001, HP now delivers
the next wave of the HP ProLiant BL line of industry-standard server blades
and further expands the industry's most comprehensive and strongest
portfolio of blade products and management software for enterprise data
centers and service providers.
Optimized to address customers' needs for performance and availability, the
HP ProLiant BL p-Class server architecture protects server information using
intelligent fault-resilient power, hot-plug SCSI drives, redundant network
interface cards (NICs) and an integrated RAID controller. Its innovative
design allows customers to dynamically scale workloads by adding server
blades, interconnects and power. In addition, customers can realize an 80
percent reduction in cabling with the p-Class server architecture versus
traditional servers.
"Today, businesses require computing infrastructures that deliver a
competitive advantage through greater cost efficiencies and the ability to
conserve resources and respond more quickly to changing business needs.
Customers also demand a sophisticated blade architecture with the
performance and investment protection to scale across the enterprise," said
Mary McDowell, senior vice president and general manager, HP Industry
Standard Servers. "While most of our competitors are just now beginning to
introduce blade offerings, HP has already begun the second phase of
delivering comprehensive blade systems, from ProLiant BL e-Class low-voltage
blades for front-end applications to more advanced ProLiant BL p-Class dual-
and, eventually, four-processor performance blades for mid-tier and back-end
applications."
Building Adaptive Infrastructure Solutions
Infrastructure solutions based on the HP ProLiant BL p-Class server
architecture reduce IT complexity and improve efficiency for enterprise
customers by combining powerful management capabilities and high-performance
servers into flexible, highly available infrastructures. Features include:
* Highly available performance server blades -- the HP ProLiant BL20p
initial blade features up to two IntelŪ PentiumŪ III processors, two
hot-plug SCSI drives, 4 gigabyte ECC SDRAM max memory and an integrated RAID
controller with battery-backed write cache. The ProLiant BL20p is the first
server blade to offer up to 144 GB of internal storage. HP Integrated
Lights-out (iLO) technology provides intelligent infrastructure and blade
management. iLO technology also enables virtual presence and control by
uniquely allowing customers to remotely manage blades, even if the operating
system is not functioning. This server blade is ideal for multi-server
applications such as dynamic Web hosting, terminal server farm and media
streaming.
* Enterprise-class infrastructure -- HP ProLiant BL p-Class server
blades "blind mate" into a server blade enclosure allowing customers to
literally snap in new blades on demand. The system's power infrastructure
provides redundant hot-plug power to all of the server blade enclosures. The
ProLiant BL p-Class infrastructure also supports HP's forthcoming generation
of dual- and quad-processor blades to maximize customers' investments.
* Enterprise management and deployment -- HP Insight Manager 7 and
the ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack software provide an enterprise
infrastructure that allows automated configuration and provisioning of
operating systems and applications on tens or hundreds of servers
simultaneously. These technologies are optimized to integrate with the HP
OpenView software suite and also within customers' existing infrastructures.
Industry-leading HP OpenView infrastructure management software enables
companies to manage and optimize business services over IT, voice and data
infrastructures.
"For the past few years, San Diego Supercomputer Center's Grid and Cluster
Computing Program has utilized modern industry-standard hardware like the HP
ProLiant BL20p to develop the NPACI Rocks cluster software that supports
state-of-the-art scientific applications. We prototype and develop on HP
ProLiant servers and have always depended on the ease and reliability of HP
solutions for our work," said Philip Papadopoulos, program director for grid
and cluster computing, SDSC. "The new HP ProLiant BL p-Class server blades
provide us with the ease of deployment, superior performance and high
availability that we have come to expect from ProLiant servers."
Alliance Program and Services
HP has extended the HP Blade Server Alliance Program to the ProLiant BL
p-Class to further customer choice and confidence. Through the program, HP
works with leading independent software and hardware vendors to develop and
test new solutions for the ProLiant BL line of server blades. More
information on this program is available at
http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/blades/products/index.html
HP Services will offer a complete portfolio of life-cycle solutions for HP
ProLiant BL p-Class systems to ensure protection against hardware downtime 7
days a week, 24 hours a day. With these offerings, HP Services will provide
quick response and resolution to problems for hardware, software, networking
and operating systems, and installation and startup services. For customers
purchasing ProLiant BL p-Class solutions, HP Services also will offer a
variety of services -- from "off-the-shelf" CarePaq Packaged Service
Offerings to custom-service offers built specifically to enhance IT
solutions.
Pricing and Availability
The HP ProLiant BL p-Class is available to order today. Pricing for a single
BL20p server blade with 1.4-GHz processor and 512 MB memory starts at an
estimated U.S. Internet list price of $2,539. Pricing for the ProLiant BL
p-Class enclosure with 8 Rapid Deployment Pack licenses starts at an
estimated U.S. Internet list price of $2,999.(1) More information on the
products announced today is available at
http://www.compaq.com.com/products/servers/proliant-bl/p-class/index.html
Additional information about HP's entire blade server family is available at
http://thenew.hp.com/country/us/eng/prodserv/servers.html
About HP
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and
services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT
infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and
imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq
Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. The company would have had revenue on a
combined company basis with Compaq of approximately $81.1 billion in fiscal
2001 and has operations in more than 160 countries. More information about
HP is available at http://www.hp.com/
# # #
(1) Actual prices may vary.
Intel and Pentium are U.S. registered trademarks of Intel Corp.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks,
uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of
historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking
statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility
that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not
develop as expected; that development of these products and services may not
proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in
HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited
to, HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31,
2002 and reports filed subsequent to HP's annual report on Form 10-K, as
amended on January 30, 2002, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2001. If
any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions
proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's
expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation and does not
intend to update these forward-looking statements.
