HP Opts For Opsware

Hewlett-Packard is adding automation software from Opsware Inc. to its Utility Data Center product, which is used to manage data-center resources. The two vendors unveiled a deal Monday under which HP also will resell Opsware to its enterprise customers.

HP's UDC is used to "virtualize" computing resources such as servers, storage, networking, operating systems, and applications, and treat them as a single pool of resources that can be allocated to jobs as needed. Opsware is used to automate software provisioning, application deployment, and patching. HP says the combination of UDC and Opsware can cut deployment times by 80% and produce substantial savings in annual operational costs.

Opsware was founded as Loudcloud, which offered hosting services, by Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame. The company developed data-center automation software to help set up and configure servers in its hosting centers. It later sold the hosting business and transformed itself into Opsware to focus on automating the provisioning and management of data-center servers.