HP Designs New Technologies, Services for Midsize Companies

By Stefania Viscusi

TMCnet Assistant Editor

 

In a bid to offer solutions for today's midsized companies looking to technology to help meet their needs, HP has announced new products, solutions and services designed specifically for "Global 500,00" companies.

 

With the new offerings from HP, it will be possible for midsized companies to further grow their operations while also lowering operating costs.

 

"Midsize customers don't want watered down enterprise solutions," said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions (News - Alert) Group, HP in a statement to the press. "They want complete solutions built uniquely to address their needs."

 

To assist midsize customers with smaller locations to leverage the benefits of a bladed environment, HP has launched "Shorty", a compact HP BladeSystem c3000 enclosure. The solution makes implementation easier, as it requires no special cooling, power or staff.

 

"For the kind of end-to-end blade solutions we deliver to midsize customers, the new BladeSystem c3000 is the right combination of versatility and simplicity to meet their unique business requirements," said Valerie Reamer, president, Gekkotek Inc., an HP channel partner based in Vancouver, Wash. "Building the right IT solution at a smaller site often presents bigger challenges than those of a large data center. Midsize customers have big expectations for customization which are often tempered by restrictions of time, budget, power and staff." 

HP StorageWorks All-in-One SB600c Storage Blade has also been introduced. This new offering works in both the new c3000 and the existing HP BladeSystem c7000 and makes it possible for customer to make use of backup archiving and disaster recovery to easily back up their business without the need for specific storage expertise.

 

HP has also introduced HP Solution Blocks, these "blueprints" offer business outcomes of applications to help "simplify and accelerate the integration of multiple applications and data protection solutions into the new c300 enclosure," a news release noted.

As part of their latest bid to assist mid-size companies looking to utilize technology, HP is also expanding their HP Total Care Initiative for the midmarket—helping customers make technology decisions, maximize technology investments for quick return on investment and keeping businesses safe.

 

"To be effective, midsize business CIOs must lead an organization that meets the expectations of the business. Midsize businesses prefer to purchase a business solution versus a technology solution and want to see the business value before they make an IT investment," said James Browning, vice president, SMB Research, Gartner (News - Alert) Inc. "For blade adoption and use to increase in the midmarket, server vendors will need to deliver solution-based blade systems that support a business need."