HP 9000 HyperPlex Delivers Mainframe-Class Control and Superior Capacity to Ease Data-Center Operations; Platform Breaks New Ground to Achieve Mainframe Discipline

Business Wire, March 23, 1999

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 1999-- Hewlett-Packard Company today unveiled the HP 9000 HyperPlex data-center platform to address customer demand for a more flexible mainframe-class computing solution that offers best-in-class manageability and capacity. The HP 9000 HyperPlex is a next-generation, clustered computing platform for enterprise-system consolidation and mission-critical data-center applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and data warehousing.

The HP 9000 HyperPlex platform supports the industry-proven 64-bit HP-UX(1) operating environment and provides customers with many important benefits, including the following:

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--   central data-center management and control with HP
     ServiceControl, HP's new systems-management suite offering a
     Web-based console, dynamic application management,
     mission-critical high availability, real-time application
     resource tuning and configuration control;

--   virtually unlimited computing capacity with as many as 64 HP 9000
     Enterprise Server nodes interconnected with HP's high-speed,
     low-latency HyperFabric backplane, delivering the computing
     capacity of thousands of CPUs;

--   superior performance based on the 440MHz, 64-bit PA-8500
     PA-RISC(2) microprocessor;

--   deployment flexibility, including partitioned workload management
     for applications, user groups and individual users, as well as
     the capability to add capacity as needed; and

--   investment protection through a special design that allows
     platform combinations of multiple generations of server nodes,
     processors and operating-system versions.

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"Among the many possible benefits of system consolidation, we see two key areas in which the HyperPlex platform can immediately contribute to a customer's bottom line," said Patrick Rogers, worldwide systems solutions marketing manager for HP's Business Critical Computing Unit. "The first is the cost savings of consolidating many midrange application servers into a handful of 'extreme-capacity' machines that can perform the same tasks faster and more reliably. The second benefit is high availability. System downtime can be catastrophic. By consolidating mission-critical applications onto the HP 9000 HyperPlex platform, customers will be able to count on application availability all day, every day."

"HP and Oracle share the same vision for data and systems consolidation," said Gary Bloom, executive vice president, Systems Product Division, Oracle(R) Corporation. "The superior scalability and systems-management features of Oracle8i combined with HP's HyperPlex solution will deliver outstanding, centrally controlled capacity to organizations facing complex systems-consolidation challenges."

To ensure that the new platform meets the stringent availability demands of the data center, HyperPlex relies on HP ServiceControl for the dynamic, online addition, modification and deletion of server nodes, applications and application resources. HP ServiceControl includes the award-winning capabilities of HP's MC/ServiceGuard to protect mission-critical applications and help provide 99.95-percent system availability. The software also can be integrated into existing management environments, such as HP OpenView, or those from BMC, Computer Associates, Tivoli and PLATINUM technology, inc.

The foundation for the HyperPlex solution is HP's family of HP 9000 Enterprise Servers. The HyperPlex platform can be built around D-, K-, R-, T- and V-Class servers, providing two-way to 128-way SMP CPU configurations. Memory options range from 64MB to 128GB per SMP server node. Disk capacity starts at 9.5TB and scales to 160TB per SMP server node, and the HyperPlex platform supports Fibre Channel-based mass storage for use in storage-area networks (SAN). This support, which enables each server to share storage resources with every server on the SAN at distances up to 10 kilometers, provides maximum configuration flexibility and high-speed disaster recovery.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The HP 9000 HyperPlex platform is available now. Pricing starts at $234,000 and varies with configuration.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 122,800 employees and had revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year.

Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

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(1)  HP-UX Release 10.20 and later and HP-UX Release 11.00 and later
     (in both 32- and 64-bit configurations) on all HP 9000 computers
     are Open Group UNIX 95 branded products.

(2)  PA-RISC stands for Precision Architecture-reduced-instruction-set
     computing.

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Note to Editors: UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Oracle is a registered U.S. trademark of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California.