HP Squeaks By IBM Servers

storage processing server virtualization

With such adjustments in the market, servers can no longer be viewed as boxes. Rather, these are systems that process requests related to network operating system tasks and enable client PCs to acquire information stored within the network. Servers are sized based upon processing requirements and not the size of the environment or business.

Given that, the ARC shook up the categories a bit, defining Mainstream Business Servers as any multiprocessor multicore SMP server that supports virtualization. Of the vendors peddling products that qualified--Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and IBM--one easily earned the highest marks in nearly all of the areas that matter most to partners: HP.

In what came down to a fairly tight race between HP and IBM, HP's ProLiant line beat its close rival with an overall score of 74 to IBM System p's 72.

HP earned top marks in product innovation, support and partnership for the ProLiant family of servers, which includes the ProLiant BL line of blades, the DL clustered products and the LM line for maximum internal storage and I/O flexibility.

"The market has embraced the product, from a customer and a partner perspective," said Frank Rauch, vice president of Technology Solutions Group (TSG) Channel Sales. "What it comes down to is offering an infrastructure solution. These are products that are priced right with differentiating features and the right channel programs behind them."

He points to the Power Management Pack and Virtual Machine Management Pack as examples of how HP is extending the functionality of ProLiant servers to meet partner and customer demands. The former provides total lights-out control, maximum energy efficiency and centralized system insight for the ProLiant infrastructure, while the latter provides central management and control of VMware and Microsoft virtual machines. And the Server Migration Pack automates the manual processes required for migrating servers between physical or virtual platforms.

"The key innovation discriminators include advances in power and cooling, ease and simplicity of connectivity, more robust management software and ease of integration," said Steve Shaffer, president and CEO of Zunesis. The Cincinnati-based HP solution provider saw its revenue from HP x86 servers grow 300 percent year-over-year, and consistently beat out competition with the HP ISS products.

In terms of support, partners value the ability to configure customer systems with HP's partner portal. "If you put in the wrong item into the configuration, it points out the error and gives better options," said Samir Hanif, government inside accounts manager at El Segundo, Calif.-based En Pointe Technologies. "That's how you know the part is not good, and to go for another. I just don't see that with other vendors' sites."

Two of En Pointe's major customers--Los Angeles Water and Power and Metro Water District--qualify for HP's enterprise Big Deal pricing. "No one can compete," Hanif said. "Other vendors offer similar programs, but make it a lot harder to get approved for a customer." n