Global CIO #1 Story Of The Year: The Surge To Optimized Systems

"Throughout our conversation, the affable Paul Miller, VP of Solutions & Strategic Alliances for Servers, Storage, and Networking, insisted that HP's 'not really behind anybody' and that it's 'in the game' and will soon be 'even more in the game.' (I take his point, but I beg to differ—the facts simply tell a different story.)

"Miller said HP's been quietly testing some of its nascent purpose-built systems with key customers and is 'already building a pipeline and footprint in the market—we're not waiting to let competitors get a lap on us. We are out there competing with IBM as well as Exadata.'

"But for HP, the best by far is yet to come, Miller promises, as HP will soon move beyond these limited stealth engagements and introduce a huge family of optimized systems spanning 'the mid-market to mission-critical applications for the world's largest enterprises.' " (End of excerpt.)

Miller said HP would offer optimized systems for data warehousing, OLTP, BI, Microsoft Exchange, and business analytics. As of this week, no word yet from HP on when this planned optimized-systems blitz will become a reality.

We'll be keeping a close eye on further developments in optimized systems in 2011, and in particular whether they live up to their lofty promise that has made them #1 on our list of the Top 10 Tech Stories for 2010. Please check out the "Recommended Reading" list below for further insight and analyses on this dynamic new category.

RECOMMENDED READING: Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison And IBM Lead Surge In Optimized Systems Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison On The Future Of IT Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle Needs More Than Ellison's Talk To Beat IBM's Systems Global CIO: Global CIO: IBM Claims Hardware Supremacy And Calls Out HP's Hurd Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle's Larry Ellison Declares War On IBM And SAP Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison's IBM-Slayer Is Oracle Exadata Machine Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle Reveals Strategy And Customers For White-Hot Exadata Global CIO: Global CIO: Microsoft Joins Oracle & IBM In Rise Of The Machines Global CIO: Global CIO: IBM Doubles Down On Red-Hot Optimized Systems Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison And The New Oracle Rock The Tech World Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle's Fowler Says Systems Performance About To Explode Global CIO: Global CIO: Gunning For IBM & Oracle, HP Plans Optimized-Systems Blitz Global CIO: Global CIO: Resurrecting Mark Hurd: Larry Ellison's War With IBM Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Acquisition List: Who's #1? Global CIO: Global CIO: IBM Top Product Exec Discusses Strategy, Systems, & Oracle Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Hardware Boasts Are Nonsense, Says IBM Global CIO: Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Top 10 Priorities At Oracle Open World Global CIO: Global CIO: Oracle Launches 'Cloud In A Box' And New Cloud Business Global CIO: Global CIO: EMC Taking Plunge Into Red-Hot Optimized Systems Market Global CIO: Global CIO: Inside Steve Jobs' Head: The Supremacy Of Software Bob Evans is senior VP and director of InformationWeek's Global CIO unit.

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