HP, Unisys Provide Data Centers with More Options

Businesses looking for more flexible data center resources are getting some help from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Unisys Corp.

HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., this summer will add more management capabilities to its Virtual Server Environment, or VSE, said Nick van der Zweep, the companys director of virtualization and utility computing.

VSE runs on HPs high-end Itanium 2 and PA-RISC systems, creating a virtualized environment that offers better system utilization and continuous service levels with a utility pricing component.

Among HPs enhancements will be a dashboard for controlling data center resources, van der Zweep said. The dashboard will feature "knobs" for data center components, which customers can dial up or down depending on their needs.

In addition, HP will expand VSEs platform support. Currently, VSEs HP-UX Workload Manager component is used in Unix environments, and its Global Workload Manager is used in multiple operating system environments, including Linux and HP-UX. Van der Zweep declined to name the platforms, although HP has said OpenVMS would be supported in the future.

For its part, Unisys, of Blue Bell, Pa., last week brought pay-as-you-go capabilities to its line of Intel Corp.-based ES7000 servers. Unisys ES7000 RTC (Real-Time Capacity) systems can run both Linux and Windows operating systems.

To read about Intels and AMDs virtualization plans, click here.

Under the program, the systems will ship with four to 12 active Intel Xeon or Itanium 2 processors and four inactive chips, said Unisys officials. Customers can bring each inactive chip online through a Web interface by using encrypted authorization keys. Unisys then bills customers for the new capacity theyre using.

Later this year, Unisys will enable users to temporarily bring inactive processors online in 15-day increments, with e-mail alerts sent when the 15-day period is about to expire. Currently, when an inactive chip is brought online, the customer buys the chip.

Ruesch International Inc., a Washington financial services company with more than 20,000 clients worldwide, is bringing in Unisys ES7000 RTC to help handle the load as the company grows, said Chief Technology Officer Radomir Zamurovic.

The ES7000 RTCs utility payment capabilities will enable the company to expand its IT capacity, Zamurovic said.

"Whats happening is that you can add as much power as you need," he said. "You basically have the processor power involved, but you dont need to pay for it until you need it."

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