Top > Webmaster > 2006 > February > 2006-02-25

What`s Coming From HP

When you start a business out of your garage with your best friend in tow, it`s hard to imagine that one day you will make it to your fortieth anniversary. But that is precisely what HP is celebrating. The computer company, who recently acquired Compaq, is considered to one of the top in the world, with some of the most cutting-edge computer and server technology. HP celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its HP Labs facility by giving a small group of reporters a sneak peek at some of its cutting-edge research.

One of the big areas of HP`s research is the so-called data center of the future that will include a utility computing model. John Sontag, director of virtualization at HP, said a common complaint he`s heard from CIOs in the past ten years is that they spend a lot of money on hardware, software and the people to run it all, but the system isn`t very flexible to changing business conditions, changes in the supply chain, the demands of the Web and other factors. "We`re looking at [transforming] the data center in terms of agility, ability to respond and making it a service over the wire," he said.

Like HP, IBM and Sun have begun offering different versions of utility or on-demand computing. Sontag noted a key advantage is being able to add computer capacity quickly and manage it from a remote location. "Normally, the process of acquiring new systems is three to twelve weeks," said Sontag. HP`s research has enabled it to significantly shrink the amount of physical space its own data center needs, and it`s working to convey the expertise and technology it`s developed to help its customers do likewise. The cost of physical space and the energy required to maintain an appropriate cool temperature in the data center, full of increasingly more powerful servers, is a major IT concern.