Market Currents
H-P (HPQ) is reportedly working on a system that will combine server, storage, and networking...
-
Friday, September 21, 2012, 7:05 PM ETH-P (HPQ) is reportedly working on a system that will combine server, storage, and networking functionality in the same box. The system, which will run on Intel (INTC) CPUs (presumably Xeon), will compete with Oracle's integrated "engineered" systems, as well as IBM's PureSystems hardware and Cisco's UCS servers. H-P's gear is supposedly aimed at cloud deployments, but the might just be marketing talk, especially since many cloud service providers are opting for commodity servers.
Other date
TECH ETFs IN FOCUS
Latest Tech Articles
This news story has 8 comments:
Wow. I think they call that a computer.
Big news about 50 years ago ;)
Can't say HP is a trendsetter here (Oracle really got the ball rolling with Exadata and Exalogic, and Cisco to some extent with UCS), but Whitman deserves some credit for not ignoring what's going on.
It's easy to mock with that specific blurb. Whitman is no technologist which is why this company is not going to be a technology leader any time soon.
I was the founder of a web hosting business in 1999 and the ideas they are propounding were old back then.
Remember " the network is the computer" idea?
http://bit.ly/QLeopv
In 1984, John Gage, from Sun Microsystems, coined the phrase "The Network is the Computer" to describe the emerging world of distributed computing. (http://bit.ly/RJUPTl) This was only three years after the stand-alone, non-networked PC had been introduced to the workplace, and most people dismissed John’s idea.
Sounds like they are working on a NetApp to me.
Revolutionary would be embracing the SSD technology and taking it in bold new directions:
http://bit.ly/QLeqOg
Or they could do the big company thing and buy Fusion i-o
http://bit.ly/OiHnF8
NetApp offers NAS/SAN storage on a proprietary OS. Whereas the Bloomberg column said HP is looking to build a machine that runs IBM databases, SAP apps, etc. Didn't say what OS, but I'm guessing some combo of Windows, Linux, and HP-UX.
I'd recommend checking out the datasheet for the Exadata X2-8 to see the kind of box HP might be looking to build. Notice the built-in InfiniBand switches and considerable storage capacity.
http://bit.ly/NJmOzZ
I had to check the date and make sure this wasn't April 1st. Right, HP is going to invite something a lot like, um, a computer.
I believe they may be looking at some of the failed efforts of the past through the glasses of viewing newer technologies - a "Back to the Future" approach.
Many ideas of the past were tried and failed because they were ahead of their time. The technology just wasn't there. I don't think the Board and Senior Management at HP are on a path of failure but rather, they are less than forthcoming with their plans.
Having worked with IBM and HP plus a gaggle of others in IT, I'm really interested to watch where the whole outcome will play out. From my position, I think there is still a heap to be done at Facebook before we can really see a sustained solution for all the players.