HP Releases the BladeSystem Matrix All Around Us

| Apr 22, 2009 | Data Center | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Steve Schuchart

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Very High
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

April 20, 2009 -- HP has released new solutions within its Adaptive Infrastructure (AI) portfolio. The HP BladeSystem Matrix is a converged software, server, storage and networking platform that automates service delivery for the data center. HP Matrix Orchestration Environment provides a unified management interface to rapidly design, deploy and optimize the application infrastructure. These offerings create an integrated pool of resources that operate in both physical and virtual environments.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on HP’s announcement of the HP BladeSystem Matrix (Matrix), because it is a unified computing system that will benefit customers and a positive response to Cisco’s UC announcement. HP’s Matrix involves not only HP’s blade servers, but also some new products: HP LeftHand P4000 SAN, HP StorageWorks SB40c with P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software bundle, HP StorageWorks 600 Modular Disk System and HP Insight Capacity Advisor Virtualization Services. In addition, it includes the Matrix Orchestration Environment that is used for automated provisioning of resources.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to HP, as the automation of data center resources is a paramount issue and a goal that HP has had for some time. HP’s Matrix brings automation similar to what Cisco’s UCS brings and shows customers that true orchestration and automation is not an out of site or pocketbook goal. HP has long had a corporate wide goal of providing ease of use, and the Matrix brings that to the complexities of today’s data center infrastructure.

• Market Impact: High on the blade server and generalized server market, because both HP and Cisco have released integrated systems designed to allow customers to quickly and efficiently deploy applications. Also, VMware’s vSphere 4 will offer many of the same features designed to work over non-factory integrated systems. Competitors who do not have an answer for these integrated compute structures will be at a serious competitive disadvantage in large data centers.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Data Center | More information

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Cisco will need to be particularly aggressive in marketing against HP’s Matrix system. If customers begin to think that creating products like the Matrix or UCS are easy, they will simply wait for their incumbent vendor to bring out a similar system. Many customers simply do not realize the engineering involved. Cisco should use its converged networking capabilities in particular against the Matrix until HP corrects that competitive disadvantage.

• Dell has its foot in the door with the Dell PAN System, but it lacks much of the back end connectivity and cohesiveness at the hardware level that HP and Cisco have. However, with the Egenera PAN Manager doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of software orchestration and resource virtualization, it shouldn’t be too hard for Dell to come up with a more competitive system to run against the HP Matrix and Cisco UCS.

• Competitors such as IBM and Sun who lack purpose built automated virtualized systems like the Cisco UCS and HP Matrix will need to quickly outline plans for such a product or risk an incursion by HP or Cisco. In the long term, the risk is looking like a technology follower rather than a leader.

• Companies like IBM, Sun, and Dell will need to get much closer to networking vendors in order to fulfill the converged networking portion of the data center package, regardless if the availability of native systems similar to HP Matrix and Cisco UCS. The networking piece is integral and needs to be planned from the beginning.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Customers who have data centers and budgets big enough should consider obtaining an HP Matrix system for testing under some of their common workloads. Development and testing environments at larger data center customers would be an excellent place to try HP’s Matrix system.

• Customers who are considering HP’s Matrix system should consider evaluating Cisco’s UCS, Dell’s PAN System, and Egenera’s BladeFrame. These systems all offer similar functionality, but this early in the development of fully virtualized data center systems, and there is some considerable differences, which customers should consider before evaluating one or two.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Data Center | More information

Top