Tuesday, January 27, 2009

HP ProCurve Expands Adaptive Networks Vision with Multi-vendor Program and Data Center Solutions


Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 27, 2009 – HP ProCurve today expanded its Adaptive Networks vision by announcing two initiatives that enable customers to address rapidly changing enterprise data center needs and improve the efficiency of their network applications.

Also, adding to HP’s extensive technology portfolio, HP ProCurve unveiled data center switches and management software designed to help customers lower costs, mitigate risks and drive business growth.

The HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem (HP ProCurve ONE) is a multi-vendor alliance program that optimises the performance of enterprise-class applications with HP ProCurve infrastructure. Participating in the program are technology leaders such as Microsoft, Avaya, McAfee, F5 and Riverbed.

Adaptive Networks is HP ProCurve’s vision for the future in which networks adapt to users, applications and an organisation’s needs.

“To help customers address the increased pace of change within their businesses, HP ProCurve is combining its own technology with some of the most innovative, respected and visionary companies in the world,” said Alaa AlShimy, General Manager of HP ProCurve Middle East. “Establishing partnerships with major technology companies to deliver open-standards choices delivers business value by increasing the efficiency of network applications.”

HP ProCurve ONE
Using HP ProCurve’s open networks platform as its foundation, HP ProCurve ONE allows customers to securely integrate a wide choice of best-in-class network applications and services from alliance partners that integrate directly with HP ProCurve infrastructure.

HP ProCurve ONE partner applications are rigorously tested and certified to ensure interoperability with the new HP ProCurve ONE Services zl Module. The module is an HP blade for the HP ProCurve Switch 5400zl and 8200zl series that consolidates many partner applications onto one common platform, thereby eliminating redundant operational costs while optimising rack space.

In addition to Microsoft, Avaya, McAfee, F5 and Riverbed, six technology companies – Aastra, AirTight Networks, Ekahau, InMon, .vantronix and VBrick – are members of HP ProCurve ONE and providing applications for the HP ProCurve ONE Services zl Module.

These partners are collaborating with HP ProCurve to help customers strengthen security, reduce complexity of network management, increase network and data center performance, deploy new VoIP services and improve manageability.

HP ProCurve data center solutions
HP ProCurve’s first dedicated data center solutions align with the HP Adaptive Infrastructure initiative, which delivers greater agility by lowering costs, accelerating business growth and mitigating risk.

The new HP ProCurve Data Center Connection Manager is designed to streamline operations in next-generation data centers. This software enables automated provisioning of server and network resources in virtualised and traditional environments to help reduce operating expenses in data centers.

The HP ProCurve 6600 switch series adds five new top-of-rack server edge switches to the HP data center portfolio, simplifying management and maintenance enabled by consistent firmware across HP ProCurve 5400, 8200 and new 6600 series switches. The switches are all based on the fourth generation of HP ProCurve’s internally developed ProVision ASIC network chipset, which drives the functionality of the network switches.

By turning off unused ports and employing a front-to-back reversible airflow system, the HP ProCurve 6600 switches help reduce energy consumption and allow customers to effectively manage the cooling layout of their data centers.

Through the HP ProCurve ONE initiative, HP ProCurve is helping customers accelerate their adoption of next-generation data centers by teaming with F5 to provide application delivery technology, and with Riverbed for WAN acceleration and optimisation.

HP ProCurve ONE alliance partner reaction
“Through our strategic alliance with HP and the ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem, we’ll deliver fully integrated IP networking and unified communications solutions and services with significant benefits for businesses and organisations,” said Alan Baratz, senior vice president and president, Global Communications Solutions, Avaya.

“F5 is very pleased to be chosen as a strategic launch partner for the ProCurve ONE program and align much more closely with HP. We bring our deep expertise of the enterprise data center and market-leading application delivery networking solutions that give customers the flexibility to deploy solutions that scale and adapt on demand,” said Dan Matte, senior vice president, Marketing and Business Development, F5.

“We’re excited about becoming a member of the HP ProCurve ONE alliance program and the opportunity to collaborate with HP ProCurve in building data center solutions that combine McAfee’s industry-leading network security products with HP ProCurve’s new family of data center switching products,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president and general manager, Network Security Business Unit, McAfee.

“HP ProCurve ONE will help customers resolve interoperability concerns by delivering an open standards-based solution that is effective and efficient,” said Tim Sinclair, general manager, Microsoft Corporation. ”The combination of the HP ProCurve ONE initiative and Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) will provide customers with enhanced security and policy-based access that helps reduce downtime and boosts return on investment.”

“The inclusion of Riverbed WAN optimisation in the HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem gives customers moving to next-generation data center models a best-of-breed solution that reduces costs and complexity, while improving application performance and employee productivity,” said Eric Wolford, senior vice president, Marketing and Business Development, Riverbed.

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