Manufacturer HP announced new ProLiant Generation 8 servers this week, designed to deliver increased performance, simplified maintenance, and improved data center uptime.
With HP ProLiant Gen8 and its expanded programs, HP aims to help SMBs transform technology silos into automated IT infrastructures, according to a HP press release submitted to Channel Pro-SMB.
The expanded HP ProLiant Gen8 line-up includes new servers based on the latest AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors, the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, and the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family.
HP is offering new HP ProLiant Gen8 rack-and-tower servers and a new blade server with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family. These models are:
- HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8 — A rack-optimized one-rack-unit (1U) server.
- HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 — A rack-optimized two-rack-unit (2U) design.
- HP ProLiant ML350e Gen8 — An expandable two-processor (2P) tower.
- HP ProLiant BL420c Gen8 — A blade server.
HP also is adding AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor support to its HP ProLiant Gen8 line-up. Such models include:
- HP ProLiant DL385p — A 2U performance-based rack server designed for virtualization, database, and high-performance computing workloads.
- HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8 — A server blade with 2,000 cores per rack for virtualization, database, and high-performance workloads.
Optional enhanced HP PCIe Gen2 IO Accelerators reduce data access latency and enable clients to achieve accelerated application performance and improved compute cycles. †††
The HP ProLiant family of scale-up servers also will add support for the Intel Xeon E5-4600 processor in new, density-optimized form factors for both blade and rack servers. These will begin shipping in volume in the summer.
The new HP ProLiant Gen8 platforms are expected to be available through HP and worldwide channel partners beginning in June. Pricing will range from $1,600 to $3,500, with variations based on model and configurations.
PROACTIVE INSIGHT ARCHITECTURE ALLIANCE
In addition to the new ProLiant Generation 8 servers, HP also rolled out new financial, support, and partner programs, including HP ProActive Insight Architecture Alliance, a group effort among technology companies to automate or eliminate manual maintenance tasks in an effort to improve data center efficiency.
Alliance members are “leaders in the memory, storage, input/output, power, and infrastructure segments,” states HP in the press release. “They design technology that meets HP ProActive Insight Architecture standards to help analyze thousands of system parameters, and deliver high levels of automation, aiding in the reduction of data center downtime caused by manual errors.”
Technology contributed by alliance members is intelligently integrated with HP ProLiant Gen8 to enable the communication of alerts, metrics, and other critical system analytics to the HP Insight Online support portal.
Additionally, HP is working with such global software companies as Microsoft Corp., Red Hat, SAP, and VMware to set performance benchmarks with HP ProLiant Gen8 servers.
To help clients speed time to adoption and maximize their investments, a “ProLiant Gen8 Capabilities and Technologies” course is now available through HP Education Services. Additionally, a new HP Financial Services Refresh for Less program provides organizations with the opportunity to transition to HP ProLiant Gen8 without requiring capital budget for operational savings.
