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- Unit 2 - HP's Corporate Business System Strategy
- Purpose 2-1
- Objectives 2-1
- Introduction:High-End Message 2-2
- Are HP's Corporate Business Systems Mainframes? 2-3
- HP's Corporate Business Systems offer tremendous cost savings today and
- tomorrow 2-4
- Don't customers require mainframes for their data center needs? 2-5
- What exactly do data center customers require? 2-5
- Should this be positioned as a "hot box?" 2-6
- What makes this more than just a hot box? 2-7
- Connectivity to Legacy Systems 2-8
- High Availability: A Critical Requirement 2-9
- Systems and Network Management Tools 2-10
- Support of Key Applications 2-10
- Service and Support 2-13
- Summary 2-13
-
- Purpose
- Unit 2 outlines the strategy through which HP can address business needs
- and large-system opportunities in markets worldwide.
-
- Objectives
- At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
- o Describe the high-end strategy for the HP Corporate Business System
- solution.
- o Describe the key needs that high-end customers have regarding data
- center functionality.
- o Describe the evolving new approaches to computing in the 90's and HP's
- advantages within this new way of thinking.
- o Identify the general strengths and features of a Corporate Business
- System solution.
-
- Introduction: High-End Message
- This unit's content is structured around the belief that a new pattern
- is emerging with respect to how companies think about their computing
- operations. HP's strategy with customers is to encourage management's
- recognition of these changes, and then for HP to prove how well
- positioned its solutions, including the Corporate Business System
- platform, are to meeting and exceeding these newly redefined needs.
- First, what is this new pattern for large system computing? Simply
- put, it is a desire by customers to receive greater value in today's
- computing solutions than they have been able to attain in the past with
- mainframe solutions.
- Mainframes are MIS focused, have a closed architecture, require large
- staffs, require a large maintenance budget, and have a cost greater than
- $3 million. They were developed and matured in an earlier decade (1960s
- and 1970s) and largely remain captive to that earlier time period. Times
- have changed and today's solutions are user focused and open. Support
- staffs required to maintain new solutions are minimal (1 or 2 people)
- and the solution cost itself is relatively small (less than $1 million).
-
- [Figure: Emergence of New Computing Needs, caption: none]
-
- The chart on the previous page summarizes the shift in requirements and
- user needs that is emerging in response to technology capabilities of
- the 1990s. HP's Corporate Business System fits well into this new
- approach to large system computing. It is a powerful new platform which
- offers:
- o Increased high-end system capacity.
- o Industry leading tools and applications.
- o Critical data center class support.
- o Comparatively simple ease of use, operation and data access.
-
- Are HP's Corporate Business Systems Mainframes?
- No. While their performance overlaps well into the IBM water-cooled
- family and spans beyond IBM's highest performing air-cooled systems, HP
- is not positioning them as mainframes.
- Market research and common sense confirm that the word "mainframe"
- carries many negative connotations that are contrary to the advantages
- of "mini-computer" options like HP.
- Instead we will position HP's Corporate Business Systems as one step
- better - a combination of mainframe-class performance with the
- advantages of leading-edge technology, world-class applications, open
- systems and attractive investment pricing.
- o HP's new platform provides an excellent upgrade path for existing
- high-end customers.
- o It also is an excellent alternative to IBM as customers move
- applications to a new technology. Corporate Business Systems are
- ideally positioned to coexist with legacy systems in the data center.
-
- Why does HP have this cost and technology advantage?
- Fundamental technology advances from ECL and CISC, for instance, to CMOS
- and RISC provide much of the basis for HP's current advantage.
- A simple cost curve projection shows that thanks to powerful price-
- performance differentials, HP's RISC-based lead will only increase, over
- time, versus the traditional mainframes.
-
- [Figure: Providing Greater Value versus Mainframes, caption: none]
-
- Don't customers require mainframes for their data center needs?
- Not always. Times have changed and today's technologies can be a better
- fit for today's businesses.
- HP's Corporate Business Systems offer the speed and solutions
- availability traditionally found in mainframes, but add the advantages
- of simplicity, compact size, minimal resource requirements, and
- coexistence features which allow easy integration with legacy systems.
- For equal levels of performance, they require a fraction of the
- expense. Therefore, a quicker pay-back and a higher return on investment
- are additional benefits.
-
- What exactly do data center customers require?
- HP's solutions are designed to anticipate all primary data center needs:
- o A scalable range of systems which offers easy board upgrades and
- fully compatible operating systems.
- o Ease of operations through integrated systems and network management.
- o High performance for both batch and on-line transaction.
- o Software features offering complete data integrity.
- o Required security features.
- o Transparency and ease of connectivity.
- o Immediate 24 hour per day, 7 days per week support.
- o Large applications portfolio.
-
- Should the Corporate Business System be positioned as a "hot box?"
- No, but HP has learned how to build hot boxes, and this is a hot box!
- Initially, HP's Corporate Business System offers:
- o Proven PA-RISC architecture
- o One to four-way symmetric multi-processing
- o Up to 2 Gbytes of main memory
- o Up to 690 Gbytes of disk
- o Up to 4500 connected users (or unlimited using NetBase facility)
- Maximum system specifications and capabilities will grow dramatically
- over time.
-
- Compact, air-cooled package. Its package design calls for minimal
- environmental requirements, so it requires no extra plumbing, less floor
- space and lower power needs. No additional processing hardware is
- required either. Our new Corporate Business Systems make much better use
- of your customers' shrinking IT budgets.
-
- Room for growth with the same package. This first release extends HP's
- existing high-end performance range by over 70%. Expect growth figures
- to be up to twenty times the initial uniprocessor level over the life of
- the platform. Modular CPU, memory, and power supply systems ensure a
- smooth growth path.
-
- [Figure: Performance Growth Beyond Current High-End, caption: none]
-
- What makes this more than just a hot box?
- Beyond very good performance and value characteristics, this offering is
- a comprehensive one.
- In a critical business system, performance is only the tip of the
- iceberg. A robust corporate platform must provide a complete, workable,
- easy-to-use solution.
-
- HEWLETT-PACKARD HAS DATA CENTER APPLICATIONS AND FUNCTIONALITY IN PLACE
- TODAY.
-
- Connectivity to Legacy Systems
- The HP Corporate Business Systems fit into your customers' most
- important environments. . . their existing ones. HP's continued
- leadership in open systems and ongoing implementation of industry and de
- facto standards ensure the highest degree of interoperability. This is a
- requirement in today's multi-vendor environments. Customers' investments
- in their existing computer systems must be protected as they move
- forward to the new methods of large system computing.
-
- [Figure: A Natural Fit into any Environment, caption: none]
-
- High Availability: A Critical Requirement
- Customers can't afford to take a system this size out of operation. Our
- high availability solutions encompass software, hardware and systems
- availability. A complete discussion of HP's strengths in this area is
- found in Unit 7.
-
- Systems and Network Management Tools
- HP's strong systems and network management capabilities offer ease of
- operations through a comprehensive suite of integrated data center
- management tools. These tools allow customers to centrally manage their
- enterprise at a significant cost savings.
-
- [Figure: Integrated Management Tools, caption: none]
-
- Support of Key Applications
- Support of key applications is critical, and HP has the tools and
- solutions your customers need to coexist and move into the new emerging
- computing patterns. If the customer needs to reshape an existing
- solution, develop a new one or access existing data on an alternative
- system, HP has the tools needed. And the leading mainframe-class
- solutions are available today.
- The following chart summarizes major solutions available now on HP
- systems. For complete details, please reference your Applications Guide
- (distributed May, 1992.)
-
- MATRIX 1
-
- MATRIX 2
-
- Service and Support
- Service and support are key components in our offering. HP offers a
- worldwide, complete support solutions for data center environments. This
- new high-end support service ensures solution availability, complete
- coverage and support partnerships - - and is tailored for the special
- needs of high-end applications. See Unit 9 for details.
-
- Summary
- As new ways of thinking about computing take hold and as cost pressures
- continue to call into question the value of an existing mainframe,
- customers will look for an alternative data center solution.
- With today's introduction of the Corporate Business System solution
- offering, HP is poised to move into the data center. The new age of
- large system computing is here. And so is Hewlett-Packard.
-
- Associated files: U2-01.HPG, U2-02.HPG, U2-02B.HPG, U2-04.HPG, U2-
- 07.HPG, U2-01.GAL, U2-02.GAL, U2-02B.GAL, U2-04.GAL, U2-07.GAL, 2.doc
- Unit 2 HP's Corporate Business System Strategy
-