InformationWeek

August 11, 1997

HP Pushes High-End S erver As Mainframe Alternative

Consulting services, performance boost in the works

ewlett-Packard and International Integration Inc. will launch a program on Aug. 25 that helps corporate customers migrate legacy mainframe applications to a client-server environment. HP's professional services organization will offer consulting, while its Palo Alto, Calif., partner, nicknamed i-Cube, will supply application-migration tools.

The program is centered around HP's mainframe-class V2200 server, which is scheduled to ship on Nov. 17. HP's Unix server business lost some sparkle in the past year when competitors such as Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems introduced their own mainframe-replacement syste ms. But now HP is crafting a strategy to regain a leadership position through partnerships, services, and technical advancements surrounding its V-class enterprise servers.

Bill Russell, VP and general manager of HP's enterprise server group, says the company will market its V-class line to companies that want to unload mainframes that aren't year 2000-ready. Russell says HP will offer cc:Numa clustering and mainframe-level partitioning of the operating system in future models. The company is also in talks with Hitachi and NEC to provide mainframe technology to HP. And it's working with SAP and other software developers on ways to provide 99.95% guaranteed uptime for applications running on V-class systems.

"HP is trying to regain the spotlight as an innovator," says Rich Partridge, an analyst with IT consulting firm D.H. Brown in Port Chester, N.Y.

HP's Russell claims the V2200 beats Sun's Starfire server on performance benchmarks. "The giant has awakened," says Russell. "Sun has been a thorn in our side, and we're out to extract it."

But users are looking beyond the battle of words. "I'm not concerned with who has the fastest processor, because that will likely change in a few months," says Jeff Lucchesi, VP of IT at delivery-service company DHL Worldwide Express in Redwood City, Calif., which is evaluating a V2200 as a Unix consolidation server. "I look at a company's long-term strategy."

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