HP bolsters Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio

HP promises to help customers survive the economic downturn by being more flexible and agile

HP has launched the second phase of its Adaptive Infrastructure (PDF) portfolio with a range of new applications, features and capabilities aimed at helping customers survive the economic downturn.

The announcement includes enhancements to HP Insight Dynamics for the Virtual Server Environment (VSE), a platform that manages physical and virtual resources in the same way, and options to integrate Insight Orchestration and Insight Recovery.

HP promised that it will build on this with a number of other product announcements later in the year.

HP's Adaptive Infrastructure is designed to help users move from standalone technology segments to an agile infrastructure in which server environments are simpler to deploy, manage and maintain.

"Cost management and agility are top of mind for chief information officers, yet significant portions of technology budgets are invested in maintenance instead of innovation," said Duncan Campbell, vice president of Adaptive Infrastructure at HP.

"HP is building on our initiative by delivering offerings to meet the challenges customers face today as they scrutinise their technology choices, and to help them emerge strong when the economy improves."

HP Insight Dynamics - VSE now includes enhanced capacity planning features, allowing it to automatically collect and analyse detailed utilisation data not just from HP systems but those of Dell, IBM and other Windows-based x86 serv ers.

In keeping with the growing trend towards virtualisation, Insight Dynamics also now supports HP Integrity Virtual Machines, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and VMware ESX and ESXi.

The new Insight Orchestration option reduces the time needed to design, configure and deploy new technology by giving administrators the ability to design templates that specify the resources required to run different applications on servers.

When the templates are activated the physical and virtual infrastructure is automatically assigned and configured to those specifications.

The system also includes a web-based portal and an integrated workflow engine to help cut down on user errors. The Insight Orchestration platform is available now on HP ProLiant servers and should be available on HP Integrity servers later this year.