HP dishes out best online support, survey says
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The world&#39;s top PC vendor, Hewlett-Packard, beat competitors Dell, Lenovo, and Apple to provide the best online customer support, according to a survey released on Tuesday by The Customer Respect Group.
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Most computer users believe they are  safe from online threats even as their machines fall victim to  viruses and spyware, according to a survey released on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard is enhancing security features on the HP-UX operating system for its Integrity line of servers amid growing customer concern about recent network security breaches. HP is announcing Monday the availability of a free upgrade to HP-UX 11i v2 that automatically encrypts data as it is stored. HP has offered this capability before, but this upgrade puts the encryption capability right into the operating system (OS). "If it's in the operating system, it's easily implemented without needing to do anything, and you're not going to break anything," said Charles Kolodgy, a research director at IDC focused on secure content and threat management products. IDC is about to release results of a survey of IT managers on their network security spending priorities for 2007, Kolodgy said. The survey will show that "file and folder encryption" has rocketed to the number one spot, from fifth in the 2006 survey, surpassing common concerns such as firewalls, network intrusion, viruses and spyware. What's changed in the last year is theÂ number of reports of serious security breaches, from theÂ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs laptop stolenÂ in May and recovered in June, to the Dec. 12 report ofÂ hackers accessing personal information on 800,000Â current and prospective students at the University of California, Los Angeles. Sun Microsystems has added encryption capabilities to its Solaris OS that it originally offered only on its Trusted Solaris system for sensitive governmental use, Kolodgy said. And Microsoft is including an encryption feature called BitLocker in its new Vista OS. "They are all attempting to bring these solutions to the end user," he said, but he added that the HP upgrade is improved over prior HP offerings. HP is also offering an optional embedded chip on its Integrity servers that holds the digital keys to decrypt protected data. It claims this approach is more secure than software-based keys. Also, a new feature called HP Protected Systems allows a network security administrator to isolate certain data in unique compartments and configure different security settings for that data as needed. Adding encryption capabilities directly to storage hardware can require an expensive upgrade, which enterprises can avoid with an OS upgrade, said Ron Luman, the security architect for HP-UX. "What we have been asked to do [by customers] is provide something that is transparent to the applications and also transparent to the storage hardware, and so that means doing something to the operating system itself," Luman said.
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roundup Plus: Good Technology supported by HP, Samsung...RIM touts BlackBerry with Wi-Fi...HP to sell Voltaire's InfiniBand switch.
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We asked Computerworld readers to rate their high-speed Internet providers on connection reliability, speed, customer service and more. The votes are in, and one service stands head and shoulders above the rest.
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InfoWorld - Hewlett-Packard isn&#39;t yet a household name in enterprise LANs but is poised to extend its gains against leader Cisco&#160;with a new core switch and coordination with HP&#39;s consulting arm.
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(InfoWorld) - HP on Monday announced it has upgraded products in its service management portfolio to help customers expedite changes, automate software distribution and align IT processes with the best practices of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). At its HP Software Universe conference in Las Vegas, the company announced updated software and services that it says will help reduce manual error and maintain more good configurations across distributed systems. The company also introduced a product, HP Change Control Management Software, which incorporates a change advisory board -- recommended in ITIL -- into software. The software, built on technology acquired with Mercury Interactive, helps automate approvals processes and reduces the need for multiple change advisory meetings to push changes out to systems, industry watchers say. "This product can eliminate tasks that a change advisory board would typically have to do," says Evelyn Hubbert, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. Because the software incorporates Mercury technology with HP's focus on service management and ITIL best practices, Hubbert says, "HP has done more work than it has in the past at working across different divisions. The product is a significant step forward in integration." HP also announced upgrades to its HP Configuration Management Software, also built on acquired technology from Novadigm. This product picks up where the change-control product leaves off, HP says, by pushing out changes approved by the change advisory board to production systems. The vendor also says this software can help with rolling out virtualization software and migrating systems to Vista. Forrester's Hubbert says the product "closes the loop on rolling out changes" for customers and reveals HP's product plans to "trickle out" more automation in its software. "It is a real pain point for clients to see a change from initiation to conclusion. HP is offering another proof point in automation, but also addressing that pain point," Hubbert says. "The company is also doing a better job of aligning their products and building a better implementation road map." Last, HP announced its Best Practices for Service Center services, which help organizations accelerate the adoption of HP Service Center software and align internal IT-management processes with those if ITIL Version 2 as well as Version 3 of the best-practice framework. The software and services are available. HP did not disclose pricing information.
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Can't get good help HP once hurled robots and processor spays at customers, as its answers to cooling data centers. Today, it's only selling air conditioning sensors.â¦
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At the HP Technology Forum, Ann Livermore, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s technology solutions group, discussed a variety of topics, including the performance of a services operation that's increasingly moving offshore.
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Online retailers Netflix, QVC.com and Amazon.com, do the best job of satisfying visitors to their Web sites, according to a customer satisfaction survey.
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Virtual Iron Software (www.virtualiron.com), a provider of enterprise-class server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management software, will be a featured solution provider at the 2007 HP Technology Forum &amp; Expo in Las Vegas this week.
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(InfoWorld) - North American customers who purchase certain Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) PCs can begin signing up Wednesday for free upgrades to Windows Vista once it is available on Jan. 30. HP also is offering customers support to help them with the Vista installation process if they qualify for a free upgrade, the company said. Customers can register for upgrades at this Web site. Customers eligible for free upgrades beginning Wednesday are those who have purchased or will purchase a new HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario or HP Digital Entertainment Center PC with the âMicrosoft Windows Vista Capableâ designation between Oct. 26, 2006, and March 15, 2007. Purchases must have been made direct from HP or from select retailers and customers can only upgrade to the version of Windows Vista that is equivalent to the PC's existing version of Windows XP, HP said. Microsoft announced in March that it is working with hardware vendors to make sure customers would know which PCs were capable or running or optimized for Windows Vista. Microsoft had planned to have Vista available on PCs in time for the busy holiday shopping season, which is currently in progress, but delays set the OS release back to January. In October, Microsoft and its hardware partners announced they would offer coupons for discounted or free upgrades to Vista for customers who had already purchased Vista-ready PCs when after months of early press reports about the plan. Analysis of the plan at the time showed there were hidden costs associated with the upgrades, costs that varied from PC vendor to vendor. HP's upgrade plan appears to be free to customers as long as they purchase eligible PCs and have access to HP technical support if they need it for the installation process. According to the vendor, customers who sign up for the free Vista upgrade will receive a kit with the OS upgrade DVD once it is available, along with an additional DVD from HP with drivers they will need to complete the installation process. On the DVD is a guide for following the correct upgrade procedure, HP said. The company also will make available the necessary Vista drivers on its HP Support Web site so customers can download them if needed. HP will upgrade that Web page as necessary so customers will always have the most current versions of drivers for the OS. HP also offers customer support for Vista as part of HP Total Care, its service and support program that offers a variety of plans for its consumer products, the company said. In addition to the usual technical support, HP is offering free online classes to help people install and use Vista, and also offers one-on-one classes with technical support agents. For more information on HP Total Care, customers can visit this Web site.
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(InfoWorld) - For a technology that's supposed to make computing easier,Â virtualizationÂ is becoming quite complicated. The Hewlett-Packard Technology Forum that starts Monday in Las Vegas will feature as many as 87 user training sessions on virtualization, more than any other category, organizers say. This is a recognition both that virtualization continues to gain in popularity but also that end users have a lot of questions. The HP Technology Forum (HPTF) is expected to draw 7,000 attendees. It coincides with the HP Software Universe event expected to draw 3,000 people to Las Vegas, though to a different venue than the Technology Forum. Despite the appeal of virtualization as a way to use IT resources more efficiently, the technology adds a layer of complexity that IT managers may not be prepared for and may reduce the anticipated return on investment. The number of virtualized servers deployed by businesses is exploding "like bacteria in a petri dish," said David Gee, vice president of marketing for HP Software. Users say they face the same management issues running a virtual environment as a physical one. "I have to track and monitor who gets access to what, who created it. Are they allowed to do this?" Gee said. Virtualization can make a single physical server act like multiple logical servers, improving server utilization. It allows one server to run multiple software applications simultaneously, reducing the number of computers needed. While virtualization is commonly used in server environments, it's also being used in desktops, storage arrays, networks and for disaster recovery. But using virtualization to consolidate the number of physical servers doesn't mean your management duties shrink proportionally. CA Inc., a maker of IT management software, reported in March that 44 percent of 800 IT professionals surveyed globally "were unable to declare their virtualization deployment a success." The survey, conducted for CA by an independent firm, showed that 28 percent of respondents failed to see the return on investment (ROI) they anticipated, or couldn't determine if they had. Forty percent didn't achieve the cost savings they expected, or couldn't determine if they had. For one thing, companies don't necessarily save on IT staff costs by virtualizing, said Peter Richardson, director of product management at CA. If a company that runs 300 operating systems on 300 servers reduces that to running 10 virtual servers on each of 30 physical servers, it still has 300 OSs, and related software applications, to manage, said Richardson. Moreover, as more virtual servers are added, those 30 physical servers could be running as many as 500 applications. "You could go around universally and ask any client that has virtualized whether they reduced staff and the bottom line is no," he said. Staff isn't reduced because server sprawl continues, even if it's just virtual. Of course, CA is making the point to promote its own virtualization management software, which, Richardson says, manages virtual environments even if there are different brands of servers on the network. Server vendors offer virtualization management software, such as HP's ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management software. There also are a few good niche management software products available, "but there is still no fully cohesive virtual management suite," said Andi Mann, senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates. The HPTF sessions should answer a lot of questions for HP customers about whether virtualization will live up to its promise, said Scott Healy, chairman of the IT User Group (ITUG), which is co-hosting the HPTF with the user group Encompass. Healy is also a vice president of IT at Sabre Holdings Corp. "The promise of virtualization is when you are able to use servers for different applications at different times without impacting the general availability of your IT resources. Balancing that is a concern for any IT manager," said Healy.
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Survey says Sun and HP struggle While customers divide their sales almost equally between IBM, Sun Microsystems and HP, they like doing business with Big Blue best of all, according to a recent study.â¦
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IT vendors are championing highly integrated and flexible systems through offerings such as IBM's 'on-demand computing' initiative and HP's 'adaptive enterprise' strategy. But what's really important, users say, is support for open standards.
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&quot;HP technology helps us to differentiate ourselves from other retailers in the way we run our stores, select and distribute products, work with suppliers, serve customers and communicate
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard is upgrading its virtualization software offerings to help data center managers better manage their virtual environments, while VMware is offering a virtualization capability for Web hosting companies. HP on Wednesday announced enhancements to its HP Virtual Server Environment software for its Integrity line of servers, which creates a pool of virtual servers that can expand and contract depending on capacity needs. Virtualization refers to the practice of running multiple software applications on one physical server to enhance utilization. Previously, most servers were dedicated to running only one application, but that kept utilization rates as low as 15 to 20 percent. Virtualization increases server utilization, thus reducing the need to buy, power, cool, and manage additional servers. HP also offers a specific software tool, Integrity Essentials Capacity Advisor, for easing the migration of data from Sun servers to HP servers. Although virtualization improves server utilization, it requires different management tools than a nonvirtual environment. HP says the Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager, another feature of Virtual Server Environment, specifies which computer workloads can automatically access available capacity in order to maintain service level agreements for key applications. The company also announced a new Partner Virtualization Program, which allows ISVs to test how their software will work in an HP virtualization environment. Testing and fine-tuning can be done for virtualization using HP ProLiant and Integrity servers and with a number of operating systems, including HP-Unix, Windows Microsoft, and Novell and Red Hat Linux. The Virtual Server Environment also works with VMware virtualization software. Meanwhile, VMware announced Wednesday the launch of its VMware Service Provider Program, which allows Web hosting services, telecommunications companies, and other outsourcing businesses to include virtual infrastructure as a service offering. Traditional hosting services use dedicated servers for each client, but virtualization makes it possible to run multiple virtual servers, even for different clients, on one physical server. The Web hosting company can then bill clients monthly based on how many virtual machines they use, not physical ones, VMware said.