14 DAY TRIAL // Two power-efficient ProLiant servers were announced today by HP, along with the first Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor based server. The servers are 20% less expensive to help small and medium businesses, and HP also announced that it offers an expanded customer relationship management portfolio, remote access technology and Linux-based management tools. All these are intended to improve security and give a better management for customers relationships.
HP's actions come in accordance to a survey made by AMI-Partners which shows that about 60 percent of midmarket companies have in mind investments in customer relationships and secure remote access. "Through extensive research and customer interaction, HP has gained valuable insight into the needs of midsize business customers," said Urs Renggli, director, worldwide small and midmarket business, Technology Solutions Group, HP. "As a result, we can deliver customized, affordable and effective technology designed specifically for them."
The most power-efficient and affordable server blade on the market is offered by HP ProLiant BL260c G5. The blade is 64 percent more power-effective, while its cost is 20 percent lower. The server blade is designed to be used along with the award-winning HP BladeSystem c3000 and c7000 enclosures. It fits perfectly for branch offices or remote sites that feature small or virtualization-based environments. It can support a whole bunch of applications, such as: CRM, web and database applications, enterprise resource planning and high-performance computing.
The second ProLiant server introduced, the HP ProLiant DL120 G5, is the most affordable rack-optimized HP ProLiant server available. DL120 offers improved efficiency for midsize business as it features the latest Intel Xeon technology. HP is also the first to hit the market with the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers, designed for customers of all sizes. Besides being energy-efficient, the new servers also deliver enhanced CPU performance, as well as large memory and storage capacities. They are designed to fit both for demanding business and virtualization deployments, helping customers save money with lower energy costs and server consolidation.
To support a business strategy centered on customer, HP integrated next-generation storage technology into HP-approved midsize Microsoft Dynamics CRM configurations. This action will also help by significantly reducing deployment time. Additionally, an affordable and easy to use solution is offered to midsize companies by the new Oracle Siebel CRM Professional Edition configurations. For HP BladeSystem and ProLiant systems running on Linux HP introduced five HP-approved Oracle database configurations that lower costs, offer support for 75 to 400 users and also reduce deployment time. Another Linux management solution is the HP Insight Control Environment for Linux, which improves application performance.
Another announced HP management tool is the HP Secure Remote Access. It allows secure and complete access to critical business information, and it includes Citrix Access Essentials, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2. "HP offers midsize businesses like ours the opportunity to manage customers using technology that is easy to use and mitigates risk," said Henry Chace, chief information officer at Burns & Levinson, a Boston-based legal firm with 260 employees. "This allows us to focus on our core mission of providing clients with the services they need."
The servers are available starting today, including all the services and solutions. The HP ProLiant BL260c G5 is priced $1,199, while the price for HP ProLiant DL120 G5 starts at $699. The CRM solution is available with the HP channel partners. The prices for the solution will vary according to the capacity requirements and number of users.