HP's 'Project Moonshot' Server Initiative Detailed

We already mentioned that HP has become the first reason of alarm for Intel by adopting ARM server designs and, true enough, the 'Project Moonshot' low-energy server technology got officially unraveled.

According to this press release, HP isn't going to take its sweet time developing newer, low-power server platforms.

Though it will put all effort and invest all time necessary in making sure everything works out as intended, it doesn't see ARM-based, low-energy servers as just a side-project.

Project Moonshot really is the nest big step, or so the announcement makes things sound.

It has chosen the HP Data Center Smart Grid (doubles or triples customer data center capacity) and the HP EcoPOD (the most efficient data center in the world) as a starting point.

“Companies with hyperscale environments are facing a crisis in capacity that requires a fundamental change at the architectural level,” said Paul Santeler, vice president and general manager, Hyperscale Business Unit, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP.

“HP has a strong track record of leading market transitions that enable our clients to stay ahead of the technology curve, maximize their ability to innovate and speed their time to market of new services while reducing costs and energy use.”

The main unique thing about it is how it uses Converged Infrastructure as its foundation and includes three elements perceived as “essential to support the industry’s evolution to hyperscale computing.”

One thing is the HP Redstone Server Development Platform, based on ARM processors or, eventually, Intel Atom chips as well.

Another is the HP Discovery Lab, where clients can experiment, test and benchmark applications on this platform.

Thirdly, HP created the Pathfinder Program, which assists with client discovery efforts and encourages development of Moonshot elements within open industry standards.

“The volume of data processed in financial markets has increased exponentially, and traditional scale-up or scale-out architectures are struggling to keep up with demand without vastly increasing cost and power usage,” said Niall Dalton, director of High-Frequency Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald, a company that is currently evaluating the technology.

“HP is taking a holistic approach to solving this problem and working to bring unprecedented energy and cost savings for tomorrow’s large-scale, data-intensive applications.”