HP Introduces On-Site Service to Help Customers Optimize Blade Technology
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HP today announced a blade-specific service that pairs customers with on-site technical experts who work closely with IT departments to develop customized plans and recommendations for application and business needs.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-PackardÂ (HP) Â introduced its revamped print strategy on Tuesday in an effort to bolster the company's lucrative printing business by giving users creative tools and Web-linked capabilities. The product rollout included consumer printers, office printers for SMBs, and the Designjet T1100 MFP for graphic arts professionals. At the high end, HP introduced the Scitex XL2200 Industrial Wide-Format Printer for high-volume commercial printing businesses. HP is also offering a range of software tools for digital content creation and for printing content directly from the Web. The products all aim to give users more creativity in sharing and publishing content, said the executive vice president of HP's imaging and printing group, Vyomesh Joshi, during a press conference in New York. In the past, most users stored content on their PCs and used printers to generate copies of photos and documents. But for customers who now archive their photos online, HP has the Tabblo Print Toolkit software that lets users of the Flickr photo Web site create personalized albums by combining photos and text. Other products include templates for printing business cards and letterhead, and -- coming in October -- a tool called HP Print Studio that will provide free designs for creating greeting cards and party invitations. HP also announced wiki sites for consumers and small businesses. The company is launching these services in an effort to slow a steep decline in printer sales throughout the industry, one analyst said. Printer vendors make nearly all their profit through sales of ink and other consumables, so they need to preserve hardware sales to ensure that demand continues, said Ian Hamilton, an analyst with Current Analysis West. "They're in a situation where they need to find ways to make their customers print more. If you see what's going on in the industry, there are pretty massive declines in the single-function ink sector, and as a whole, the industry is having a lot of struggle," Hamilton said. Printer demand has been shrinking fast in recent years across most sectors. The growth of global unit shipments of inkjet MFPs (multifunction printers) has slowed from 35.3 percent in 2004 to 30.5 percent in 2005 and 19.2 percent in 2006, according to figures from IDC. Sales of laser MFPs and laser single-function printers showed similar trends, while single-function inkjet printers have suffered worst of all with annual global shipments shrinking by 8.4 percent in 2004, 9.6 percent in 2005 and 21.6 percent in 2006, IDC said. That slump has also put a dent in HP's earnings, asÂ the company reported on Aug. 16 that its imaging and printing group had slower growth than any other corporate division, rising 8 percent year-over-year with revenue of $6.7 billion for the third quarter. In comparison, the revenue for HP's software group grew by 74 percent over the same period, and the personal systems group, the division that sells PCs, grew by 29 percent. Despite sluggish growth, the printer division is crucial for HP's financial success. The division generated 26.6 percent of HP's total quarterly revenue of $25.4 billion for the quarter, more than any other segment except the PC group.
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IBM and Intel have signed up more than 100 companies to build products that support the BladeCenter blade server specification since the open-source spec was made available in September.
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In the three months since IBM and Intel opened design specifications for Big Blue&#39;s BladeCenter, more than 100 vendors have signed up to use the information, meaning that end users will soon have access to network switches, adapter cards and other
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IBM has beefed up its popular BladeCenter offering with the introduction of six new models and improved power management features.
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(Source: HP)  HP-UX 11i v3 delivers new features that enhance leadership in flexible capacity, secured availability, and simplified management, and OS performance that turbocharges your applications.
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Giving employees, customers and vendors easy-to-use analytics tools that deliver complex reports in real time promises to reshape the business landscape. Learn how SAP deployments running on Dual-core Intel Xeon processor-based blade-server systems provide enterprise-grade business analytics that empower business users and free IT professionals from the chore of running analytics reports.
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Company says that instead of just performance, customers now want manageability features and lower power consumption.
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Dell gets set to roll out its PowerEdge 1855 blade server line a home-grown design, this month.
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Consumers hoping to enjoy their favorite  comics or Harry Potter book in digital form could soon have a  flexible alternative to clunky laptop computers.
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Hewlett-Packard Co., aiming to beef up its erratic enterprise computing business with new products, said Monday it is launching new high-end and mid-range server-computers and related software and services early this week.
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The products aim to address demand for faster throughout from blade servers as a result of virtualization and server consolidation.
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HP looks to utility, aggregation and legacies Following on from the formal launch earlier this month of the latest version of its Integrity Servers equipped with dual-core Montecito processors, HP put on a users' bash in London to drum up business from both existing and new customers.â¦
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The PC maker is eyeing in-home services to go with its new consumer electronics line.
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New switch and expansion card address market demand for faster throughout from blade servers.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM Corp. is adding to its blade server line with an upcoming model targeted at small-to-medium-sized businesses. The BladeCenter S system is packaged to include server, storage, input-output connections to a network and software integrated into a single chassis. IBM declined to provide pricing information but said it plans to begin shipping the product in the fourth quarter. "BladeCenter S simplifies IT for our customers," said Alex Yost, vice president and business line executive for IBM's blade products. "Set up is three easy steps: Take it out of the box, plug it in and run the wizard to get it up and running, much like you might do a PC today." The new model is small enough to sit on a desktop, runs on standard 110- or 220-volt electrical current, requires no raised floor, and features simplified cabling compared to other servers, said Yost. A BladeCenter S system can include up to six blade servers and will include software for running a typical office environment, such as antivirus protection, VOIP (Voice over IP) phone service, e-mail and file-print functions. IBM cited an IDC research forecast showing blade computer market revenue growing to US$11 billion by 2010, from $3 billion in 2005. IDC research also forecasts blade sales to account for 18.1 percent of all server sales by 2011, from 6.6 percent this year. Blades are appealing to data center managers because they are smaller and more energy efficient than rack servers. But in the competition among server vendors for blade sales, IBM comes in second. Hewlett-Packard Co. held a 40.9 percent share of the global blade server market, while IBM held 35.2 percent, also according to IDC. HP on MondayÂ unwrapped BladeSystem bc2000 and bc2500 machines, claiming they reduce IT management costs while improving data security.
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The computer maker envisions the blades being used to replace large numbers of stand-alone servers, among other functions.