Migration servers live together at new HP
August 2, 2013
Quietly this year, HP reorganized its server operations. Under the cover of an announcement of a Converged Systems group, Hewlett-Packard combined its Intel Xeon-based server business with the specialized Intel Itanium-based server products. The new unit hasn't reported its results yet; the reorg took place just at the end of the second HP quarter of fiscal 2013. Randy Meyer has been named as the GM of many products.
Numbers for this business won't appear for a few more weeks -- HP closed its third quarter on Wednesday, July 31. However, Hewlett-Packard says the combination of these groups will quicken the pace of something the vendor calls "the speed of transformation of the server industry."
While the un-migrated 3000 customer evaluates platform options, they've been watching a transformation that probably didn't seem to require more speed. Business Critical Servers (BCS), the home of Integrity/Itanium operations, has been on a speedy path to a slimmer profile at HP for nearly two years. Integrity servers have become a tough sell to new customers, but a preferred path for existing companies that have a lot invested already in HP's Unix, for example.
Obviously, the 3000 site that hasn't made a move yet won't have much invested in HP-UX or Integrity. Unless that company already has operations elsewhere that use Unix and Integrity boxes. It might be the place where Integrity can still claim some fresh datacenter real estate, but those won't be new customers.
In a note to NonStop users (also captive to the Integrity line), VP and GM of Integrity Servers Randy Meyer said HP's compression of servers has no impact on its level of committment.
I can assure you that while there's been a change in leadership, there is no change in the focus and commitment to the NonStop business, and no change to what people care about. We are an important part of the HP Server organization, and we'll continue to deliver the quality and value that you depend upon to run your business.
It's all true, but the NonStop customer has now seen Winston Prather (long ago, the HP 3000 GM) leave NonStop, and then the recently-promoted Ric Lewis depart as GM of NonStop. Now Lewis "has moved up, but he's not moving very far. He still owns the NonStop business, and is still deeply invested in its success," Meyer reported.
Perhaps it's a good thing that NonStop-using Integrity customers no longer have their own general manager. And it might even be an improvement to have NonStop -- and for that matter, HP-UX -- inside of a new Enterprise Servers Business Segment. Even as a slice of HP's server industry, HP's packed a lot of business in there.
Within Enterprise Servers, we have created an Integrity Servers business focused on HP's mission critical portfolio include NonStop systems, Integrity server, and HP-UX and OpenVMS operating environments.
This is a better explanation of the what that speedy transformation produces: fewer managers, combined resources and operations, and a single line on the HP quarterly report. It now says Integrity Servers, not BCS. Earlier this year HP's CEO said that BCS was once a big business. Now HP's resizing it and aligning it with the rest of its enterprise server offerings that use a popular intel architecture. When these were Industry Standard and Servers and Business Critical Systems, BCS took all the heat. Now the word Integrity will supplant BCS in the financial reports, and one GM will lead all these products into the future.