PALO ALTO, Calif., March 20 -- HP today announced technologies that integrate virtualization capabilities into the HP ProLiant server platform, allowing customers to rapidly and simply virtualize their server environments.

Called HP ProLiant iVirtualization, these technologies allow businesses of all sizes to lower costs, improve productivity and better allocate resources across their server infrastructures.

HP has joined with the industry’s largest virtualization vendors -- VMware, Citrix and Microsoft -- to develop these technologies, which integrate virtualization with a broad range of HP ProLiant and BladeSystem platforms.

iVirtualization is integrated directly into the ProLiant server using features that leverage customers’ existing server management tools. As such, when a server is powered on, it is automatically and immediately configured into a fully capable virtualization environment.

This enables companies to adopt virtualization with greater speed and simplicity. Moreover, by taking advantage of HP Insight Control, iVirtualization increases business agility, improves quality of service and streamlines infrastructure management.

“iVirtualization combines our industry-leading ProLiant servers with multiple virtualization technologies, then adds a high level of integration and management capabilities to deliver an unrivaled user experience,” said Scott Farrand, vice president of Industry Standard Server Software at HP. “By better managing their technology infrastructures and resources using virtualization, customers will have more time to focus on initiatives that impact their bottom line.”

HP offers a broad virtualization portfolio: from server-based offerings such as HP ProLiant iVirtualization, to infrastructure solutions such as HP Insight Control management software and HP Insight Dynamics - VSE, to HP Data Center Automation software that provides seamless management and automation of the complete lifecycle of virtual and physical environments.

The depth of complementary technologies from HP and its extensive collaboration with its partners allow customers to choose the right combination of virtualization solutions that best fits their specific business needs.

The HP ProLiant iVirtualization portfolio

HP ProLiant iVirtualization is designed for small to medium-size businesses as well as enterprise customers. Offerings include:

• HP ProLiant iVirtualization powered by VMware ESX 3i -- Initially announced in February, this integrated solution allows customers of all sizes to quickly and easily deploy a server into a VMware environment for either single server partitioning or as a fully functioning plug-and-play component within a datacenter virtualized by VMware. HP plans to make this available on ProLiant servers beginning March 31.

• HP ProLiant iVirtualization powered by Citrix XenServer -- This integrated solution features a new interface called HP ProLiant Virtual Console, which offers substantially improved configuration, management and ease of use for virtualized ProLiant servers. It provides a fast and simple path to virtualization on a single server or as part of an end-to-end Citrix solution for server, application and desktop virtualization. HP plans to make this solution available to customers beginning March 31.

• Microsoft Hyper-V Server for HP ProLiant iVirtualization -- Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server solution running on HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers allows customers to consolidate multiple server roles running as separate virtual machines to a single physical server while using both Microsoft’s and HP’s management tools. HP ProLiant iVirtualization powered by Microsoft Hyper-V Server will be made available following the release of Hyper-V Server by Microsoft.

• HP ProLiant Virtual Console -- The new HP ProLiant Virtual Console advances the simplicity and manageability of a virtualized server from a local console or remotely via the HP Integrated Lights Out (iLO) Advanced console. Using this exclusive capability from HP, which is initially available on ProLiant servers with iVirtualization powered by Citrix XenServer, customers are able to easily create and manage virtual machines on individual servers. In addition, customers can:

• perform subsequent configuration, visualization and modification of key controls of the virtualization platform.

• use a single "hot-key" to quickly toggle between each virtual machine console.

• select a multi-screen view that displays multiple virtual machine consoles at once.

• use HP ProLiant Virtual Console to create unlimited virtual machines on HP Select Edition.

HP ProLiant iVirtualization management tools and availability

HP ProLiant iVirtualization works seamlessly with customers’ existing HP Insight Control management tools to reduce the time needed to install and configure a virtualized environment.

The following hardware management tools within the HP Insight Control portfolio have been enhanced to deliver greater manageability of servers with ProLiant iVirtualization:

• HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) -- This platform management tool can now discover VMware ESX Server 3i and Citrix XenServer virtual machines within the network and associate the appropriate virtual machines with the servers on which they run. Customers using HP SIM with HP ProLiant iVirtualization can reduce downtime by actively monitoring data through proactive alerts and server polling. These features are not available in management tools from any other hardware vendor.

• HP Virtual Machine Management Pack (VMM) -- Enterprises can use VMM to manage virtual machines from the same console used to manage the physical infrastructure. VMM now supports VMware ESX 3i, VMware ESX Server, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, with planned support for Microsoft Hyper-V Server. Customers can directly launch any of these management tools with HP VMM for advanced control of the virtualized environment.

• HP Server Migration Pack - Universal Edition (SMP Universal) -- Built specifically for HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers, this tool features a single interface for automating both physical and virtual migrations. In addition to supporting virtual platforms from VMware and Microsoft, SMP Universal now supports VMware ESX Server 3i and Citrix XenServer with planned support for Microsoft Hyper-V Server. As a result, conversion between virtual and physical environments is greatly simplified as business needs change.

Offerings within the HP ProLiant iVirtualization portfolio can be integrated with a server at HP’s factory before being shipped to a customer or it can be integrated with a server by an HP reseller partner. Customers also can choose from base-level functionality or enterprise capabilities, depending on their business needs.

HP ProLiant iVirtualization complements HP Insight Dynamics - VSE, which was previewed earlier this week. HP Insight Dynamics - VSE is advanced planning and management software that allows datacenter administrators to analyze and optimize physical and virtual resources across the entire infrastructure in the same way, bringing the benefits of virtualization to physical servers.

More information about HP’s virtualization portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/proliantvirtualization.

About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers -- from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $107.7 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2008. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

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Source: HP