servium freshen up with nextgen proliant

HP ProLiant servers are changing the way computing serves business.

Freshen Up.Why next generation HP Proliant scores highlyfor technology refresh...

According to analyst IT IDC, 80% of x86 servers deployed today have reached the end of their lifecycle and are effectively on borrowed time. With evermore unpredictable economic cycles it’s easy to pull in the purse strings and opt to delay technology refresh or under value the impact of next generation technology.

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The ROI argument for deploying newer server technology is well documented, but the specifics are lost amongst the noise of competing messages from an array of vendors. In many ways it’s an ‘own goal‘ from the manufacturers as there are compelling benefits and innovation gems which as an end-user you’re turned off from discovering.

At Servium we are inspired by overcoming the IT challenges of our customers so we spend our lives cutting through these messages to distil and workout what’s really going to answer our customers’ problems. Always at the forefront of our mind is to deliver economies not previously thought possible – whether that’s financial, time, resources deployed – whatever. That’s our motivation for elevating some of the reasons we think it’s important to look at HP’s latest generation of Proliant servers. If you’re considering a technology refresh or re-platforming, this is need-to-know stuff, if you’re putting off a refresh we think this may help tip the balance.

We’re not suggesting HP is the only server brand to consider, but what we do want to share are the things which are exciting us about the technology from what we’ve achieved for some of our customers and what we think is possible with this at the foundation of your infrastructure.

The R.O.I. Argument



2. Unrivalled consolidation

Regardless of what stage you’re at in the virtualisation journey there’s no questioning you’ll get some fantastic consolidation benefits from choosing Proliant. If you’re determined to stay or keep a chunk of your environment physical you’ll get considerably more performance from a smaller physical footprint and power envelope the result of multi-core processors and reclaimed energy through HP Thermal Logic Technology. These efficiencies are further accentuated if you choose to go BladeSystem too (see point # 10).

3. Scaling the promise of virtualisation

On the other hand, if you’re looking at continuing a programme of virtualisation or starting this from scratch you’ll be pleased to know that Proliant will dramatically reduce the amount of physical infrastructure you’ll need. Thanks to breakthrough innovation in processors, memory and I/O acceleration, including the world’s first 16-core x86 processor, get up to 35% greater performance and 33% more virtual machines on a single host. We’ve seen conservative server consolidation ratios upwards of 20:1 whilst HP claims to have consolidated 91 legacy Proliant G4 servers onto the latest generation of server.

Are You Putting Off a Tech Refresh?

1. One for all – a comprehensive portfolio

There’s no debating that Proliant has been deployed more than any other WINtel server globally. It stands to reason that the family would be made up of a comprehensive portfolio of products. With the newest generation of technology Servium has been exceptionally impressed by the depth of the portfolio - departmental server to enterprise data centre or anything in between it’s easy to identify a machine with the right performance, scalability and availability characteristics for a multitude of tasks. Whether you’re looking for a robust virtualisation platform, high performance compute, low-end Unix replacement, simple file and print or anything in between Proliant is a sound choice.



4. Modular building blocks

One of the things we really like about Proliant is that it’s more than just a server. Technologies are converging – server, storage and network. Proliant is a standards-based technology so interoperability is high, helping to break traditional computing silo’s and integrate with other systems. If used in conjunction with other HP technologies compute functions can be combined into pools of available resources which can be managed through HP’s universal management console to reduce complexity, remove constraints, and adapt to changes. In this sense we see it as a building block to help deliver IT services more efficiently.

27 x More Efficient Is Hard To Ignore

5. Energy efficiency reclaims capacity

Utilising massively power efficient processors from both Intel and AMD plus some unique HP only innovation including the “sea of sensors” – up to 30 smart sensors integrated throughout the server that reduce power usage based on real-time adjustments to operating conditions power - can be provisioned based on server workload. The result is that the current generation of Proliant servers is 27 x more energy efficient than a typical 4 year old x86 machine. Perhaps most interesting though are HP’s suggestions that consolidating on this technology can reclaim up to 80% of data centre capacity without facility expansion, creating fresh headroom for future growth and extending the life of the data centre. A bold statement but one we’re bought into from the data centre space, power and cooling savings we’ve seen our customers reclaim across a variety of projects both large and small.

Refresh Now

Cash back for your legacy servers when you trade in against next generation ProliantSee it in action – contact us for a free demonstration Try it in your own environment - contact us to qualify for a free loan

Serv

ium



6. Through the looking glass

You won’t be alone if you’re estate has grown in part thanks to the commoditisation of cheap to purchase x86 technology. Inefficient IT stacks result in more to manage, more to power and cool, more to learn, and more to do. HP management tools significantly improve the management of your server estate. From a single pane of glass manage physical machines, virtual machines and much more. This enables new systems and services to be spun up quickly and infrastructure-wide management, health monitoring, and remote control.

7. Stretch your budget

Analysts suggest that as much as 80% of the average IT budget is spent on maintaining systems rather than innovating and moving things forward. Replacing aging technology with next generation Proliant can help your budget go much further – up to 10 x further in fact. It’s not rocket science either, the new systems are cheaper to power, cool, manage and house plus you’ll need fewer of them. That’s why customers are choosing to move to Proliant as a low-cost, non-proprietary platform with mission-critical performance triggering the desire to save big and move to off-the-shelf applications. What’s more they’ll pay for themselves quickly too. We’ve seen investment pay back in as little as 6 months on power and cooling savings alone, although HP believe that in some situations this can be as little as 60 days.

9. Innovate on demand

HP Proliant servers are helping change the way computing serves business. Draw confidence from a standards-based server infrastructure prepared for convergence with the flexibility to deliver your IT services now and in the future. The ability to automatically provision and low touch manage new systems means you’ll deploy new services your business demands up to 12 x faster than before – a welcome relief in this tough economic climate where new players cause you to up your game—putting greater pressure on business innovation.

60 Day Cast Iron Payback



10. Infrastructure In A Box

HP is the market leader in this space and rightly so. The Proliant BladeSystem family is a proven architecture and clever innovation sets it apart from the competition. BladeSystem really is an ‘infrastructure in a box’ – one chassis can conceivably contain everything you’d need to run your business – servers, storage, networking and management. Compared to traditional rack mount servers this delivers up to 40% upfront cost reduction in acquisition of servers, switches and cables. We’re also really impressed with clever HP innovation like Virtual Connect which drastically simplifies LAN and SAN connectivity while reducing network interface card and cable usage by 75%, plus at the same time delivering 10GbE bandwidth.

Razor Sharp Blades

What Next?

If any of these xxxx considerations have struck a chord with you please talk to us. We’ll help you examine how HP Proliant and other emerging technologies can stimulate benefits and returns you didn’t think possible. We’ll show you the technology working for real through detailed proof-of-concept, loan you the technology for trial in your own environment and provide all of the expertise and care needed to design, implement and ultimately put the technology to work on your behalf.


About ServiumServium provides IT infrastructure services for medium to large enterprises in both the private and public sector. We pride ourselves on delivering innovative solutions inspired

by overcoming the day-to-day and strategic IT challenges of our customers. We blend the best emerging technologies

with professional customer service to answer these challenges and deliver economies not previously possible.

Tel: +44 (0)844 736 6155Email: [email protected]: www.servium.co.uk