Reality Check: Server Insights : Insight Control

HP announcements at VMworld - Insight Control for vCenter and VDI architecture for VMware View

Kristie Popp — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Tuesday brought the opening sessions for VMware & HP, first out of the gates in the morning at VMworld. The buzz at the Moscone Center was strong all day, the HP booth humming high.

Here are the HP announcement highlights from the morning Super Sessions:

Insight Control suite for VMware vCenter:

The first product of its kind, HP Insight Control suite for VMware vCenter delivers powerful HP hardware management capabilities directly into the vCenter management console. This exciting new product enables virtualization administrators to remediate both Virtual guest and host issues directly from the vCenter console.

Virtual desktop infrastructure:

Virtual desktop infrastructure is a server-based computing model that gives users a PC desktop experience, while securing all applications, management and processing in the data center. The HP Virtual Desktop Reference Architecture for VMware View specifically addresses the performance bottlenecks and management complexities of other offerings. Customers can test the solution in select HP solution centers worldwide.

We will post the videos from this morning once they are published.

See a few photos from the opening sessions
Read the full press release
Let us know your thoughts on these announcements by commenting on this blog

TTX Company announced as 1 millionth Insight Control customer at HP Tech Forum

Kristie Popp — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:31:00 GMT

On Tuesday, June 16th at HP Tech Forum, TTX Company was recognized as the one millionth ICE customer. What’s cool about this milestone is that it’s really about customers recognizing that Insight Control helps them get the most value from their HP ProLiant hardware.

We can tell you that Insight Control delivers actual cost savings and improved efficiency, but it’s better to have you hear it directly from other customers. According to Rob Zelinka, Director of Infrastructure at TTX Company, “HP Insight Control management tools are far superior to the competition. They provide comprehensive proactive health status, are easy to use, and very intuitive. Compared to IBM’s tools, there is a night-and-day difference, and Dell isn’t even on the radar.” Read the entire story.

In a nutshell, here are some of the benefits that TTX Company realized:

12x faster server deployments: provision server in 20 min.
Fewer server “touches”: 2x per month vs. several per week
Faster troubleshooting with video record of remote console: minutes vs. 1-2 hrs
Update servers with ‘Set and go’ automation, not manual intervention
More reliable = less downtime for end users

Here are Rob Zelinka and Chad Plemons from TTX Company receiving the award at HPTF from Bill Swales, VP of Industry Standard Servers in North America.

See how TTX got the most value from their ProLiant hardware, with actual cost savings and improved efficiency simply by using intuitive the HP Insight Control management software in this video:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

It’s now easier than ever to buy Insight Control… licenses are bundled with popular ProLiant G6 models. For more info on Insight Control, please visit www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol

Have you been using ICE in your datacenter? Tell us your story!

Steph Grubich, HP Infrastructure Software and Blades Marketing and Kristie Popp, ESS web & SoMe team

HP Delivers Industry-first Management Capabilities for Microsoft System Center

aimeeschoaf — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:29:00 GMT

By Lorre Bumgardner, Product Manager - HP Platforms/Partner management

Monday, April 27th marked a significant milestone in our 20+ year relationship with Microsoft. We are very excited about the news -- we launched the Insight Control suite for Microsoft System Center (ICE-SC) at Microsoft Management Summit. The first product of its kind, ICE-SC delivers a complete hardware infrastructure management solution directly in the System Center consoles.

What do I mean by "complete?" For example, "complete" to HP means things like total remote control (iLO), deep insight into ProLiant platforms, proactive virtual machine management (PRO pack), automated deployment (OSD), and power and performance management of the HP server infrastructure. Priced at $549 per managed server and backed by 24x7 support with free software updates, ICE-SC radically simplifies the management experience for HP customers who have standardized on Microsoft System Center. There's even an upgrade for current iLO Advanced customers priced at just $289.

Why now, and why charge for this functionality, you may ask? HP knows that most other server vendors are providing some of this functionality, such as OSD and PRO packs, for free. But HP's approach is to offer a complete, robust solution rather than just basic functionality that won't do everything our customers need. In addition to staying very close to our customer base, we've done a lot of research to determine what HP can do to make life simpler for the people who use our products. ICE-SC is the result of significant feedback from customers, extensive research and more than a year of working with the folks at Microsoft on development.

The "easy" approach would be to deliver minimal integration value, throw our management packs up on our web site and leave our customers to their own devices when it comes to support. But that's not the HP approach. While we'll continue to deliver basic management packs free of charge for SCOM and SCCM updates, we're confident that our customers who need more advanced functionality like automated deployment and virtual machine management expect more, because we've done our homework. You can learn more about this exciting new product at: www.hp.com/go/ICESystemCenter, or come visit us if you happen to be attending MMS!

Buying an HP ProLiant Server Bundled with the Insight Control Suite Just Got Easier

aimeeschoaf — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:33:00 GMT

By John Schmitz

On March 30, we announced our new G6 line of HP ProLiant servers - built for performance and reliability. These servers, which run the HP Insight Control suite, are the industry's best managed x86 servers. HP Insight Control suite, popularly known as "ICE," provides essential infrastructure management capabilities for system administrators who need to save time, reduce complexity, and lower the costs associated with day-to-day server administration.

The HP Insight Control suite (ICE) delivers an essential set of management capabilities including: (1) rapid server deployment, (2) proactive server health management, (3) the ability to optimize server power, and (4) server remote control from anywhere. ICE delivers this robust set of management capabilities with our award-winning HP Systems Insight Manager tool which is available for both Windows and Linux-based environments

And, in an effort to make the HP Insight Control suite easier for our customers to buy, HP now offers ICE bundled with select HP ProLiant DL360 G6 and DL380 G6 models. These offerings include a high-performing ProLiant server AND the HP Insight Control suite - and can NOW be ordered as a single SKU/part number. Additionally, customers who choose to buy these bundles with a ProLiant DL360 G6 or DL380 G6 server will save an additional 20 percent off the price of an individual ICE software license. Learn more at www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol You can see the value and savings is tremendous. Be cool and order your next ProLiant server bundled with ICE and save big!

And to get the most out of your HP Insight Control suite, take advantage of HP Education Services, which are available to help train you and your staff on the fundamentals and advanced capabilities of ICE. Learn more at http://h10076.www1.hp.com/education/hp_ice_curriculum.htm