HP simplifies cloud management

HP recently announced new virtualisation software solutions for the simplified and automated movement of virtual machines (VMs) and data in cloud environments.

In legacy infrastructures, moving VMs, such as a Microsoft Exchange application workload, between data centres requires hundreds of complex, manual device-level configuration steps. Data mobility is similarly challenging because storage requires a physical deployment that consumes floor space, power, cooling and infrastructure investment, which locks clients into a proprietary environment.

New HP Converged Infrastructure solutions help to eliminate these issues, delivering increased agility and simplicity:

·    HP Ethernet Virtual Interconnect (EVI) is the industry’s first solution to simplify and speed the interconnectivity of up to eight geographically dispersed data centers in minutes, eliminating manual configuration tasks.

·    HP Multitenant Device Context (MDC) software delivers increased security for multitenant cloud applications, eliminating the comingling of data from different applications or departments. This reduces costs and equipment, and ultimately simplifies network operations.

·    HP StoreVirtual virtual storage appliance (VSA) increases flexibility by allowing clients to easily build storage pools on any x86 server using VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. As a result, clients can move data across heterogeneous servers, hypervisors and data center locations to better meet organisation needs, while reducing overall cost and complexity.

“Clients are seeking a more flexible virtualised environment that enables mobility of virtual machines and data services across the enterprise,” said Graham Vorster, Country Manager, Networking, HP, South Africa. “HP’s unique virtualisation technologies meet that need, helping clients to significantly increase their agility and innovate at a pace their organisations demand.”

Industry’s only multitenant Data Center Interconnect for cloud networks

Connecting geographically dispersed data centers optimises workload mobility and disaster recovery. Typically, this connectivity requires months of error-prone and costly manual network redesign and reconfiguration.

HP EVI is the industry’s only Data Center Interconnect (DCI) overlay technology that enables “single touch” connection of up to eight data centers around the world from one location. Clients can optimise server and storage resources to perform workload mobility or disaster recovery by linking the software in HP EVI from one data center to another. 

With HP MDC software, clients can create multiple, secure and isolated functions for organisational departments such as finance, human resources and engineering, while reducing the number of networking devices in the data center by 75 percent.

Combining HP EVI with HP MDC simplifies and speeds data center interconnectivity over any existing network. Additionally, total cost of ownership is reduced by implementing a single architecture and management platform that supports the broadest set of Data Center Interconnect platforms in the industry.

“We needed a centralised, consolidated data center infrastructure that delivered long-term operational efficiencies to accommodate our network of more than 100 agencies,” said Jason Cohen, global chief information officer at Diversified Agency Services, a global marketing services and specialty communication company. “HP delivered exactly that, and the new Data Center Interconnect additions will ensure business continuity by distributing applications and compute resources for our enterprise private cloud and the delivery of disaster-recovery services.”

Industry’s only hypervisor-independent virtual storage appliance

To address flexibility and cost, many organisations have moved from physical storage deployments to VSAs and VM-based data services to support new application workloads and rapid data growth. However, most VSA software is proprietary, supporting only a single vendor’s hardware and hypervisor.

HP StoreVirtual VSA is the first software-based virtual storage appliance to operate on any x86 server, while connecting to a range of third-party external storage solutions and supporting a mix of VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors simultaneously. As a result, HP StoreVirtual VSA creates a highly efficient environment with the flexibility to move data across heterogeneous servers, hypervisors and data center sites, as well as between virtual and physical storage platforms. 

HP StoreVirtual VSA enables customers to:

·    Lower infrastructure costs and cut power consumption by up to 60 percent with software-based shared storage that is open and extensible.

·    Rapidly respond to new customer demands with seamless data mobility between different devices, hypervisor technologies and physical locations.

·    Reduce business risk by ensuring data availability with built-in resiliency features and integration with information-protection solutions.

HP will be demonstrating its new networking and storage products at VMworld San Francisco, Aug. 26-30, at the Moscone Center in booths 1503 and 235.

Pricing and availability

·    HP Ethernet Virtual Interconnect and HP Multitenant Device Context will be available this fall as software upgrades for the HP FlexFabric core switches. 

·    HP StoreVirtual VSA will be available in September with a starting U.S. list price of R7 200 per license when purchased in multilicense packs.

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