Storage Administrators are called “SAN or Storage Experts” for a reason. Deploying, managing, and maintaining traditional Fibre Channel SANs is a very specialised “art” that requires significant experience in understanding Fibre Channel protocol, zoning concepts, and SAN best practises. Similarly, these “Storage Experts” have many of the same challenges when it comes to provisioning storage resources and allocating those resources to the server systems that utilise them.
In smaller companies, there are usually none of these “experts” available and therefore deploying modern storage and storage networks has been out of the realm of their IT possibilities.
That is of course, until now. HP have launched the P2000 G3 FC DC SMB SAN Starter Kit, HP has changed SAN complexity to SAN simplicity with an SMB solution that takes significant complexity out of deploying and managing a modern storage network, which is easy to order and provides a scalable yet affordable solution for small and mid-sized customers.
The P2000 Starter kit (Part number AP847A) comes with Dual controllers, Dual power supplies, 2 x Qlogic SN6000 FC Switches, Qlogic 81Q HBA cards, Cables and SFP's, so really all you need to do is add the drives.
For more information on how this solution reduces complexity the please read the technical white paper below.
If you need help with providing a SAN solution or have questions surrounding a storage opportunity then please do not hesitate to contact us.
You may remember that back in October 2011 we launched the Westcoast Smart networking tool. Well a few months on I would like to report that a number our resellers are using this tool with great results!! With this useful tool you can take a Cisco solution and turn it into a HP based solution.
So if you are a HP networking reseller and have not taken advantage of this tool then please take this opportunity to do so.
What are the benefits of using this tool?
48 Hour SLA – Upload your network designs or kit lists to the tool and our technical experts will endeavour to send your quote in under 48 hours*
Pricing advantage – On average a HP solution is 20% cheaper than the equivalent Cisco offering
Increased Margin – Qualifying deals will benefit from at least 10% additional margin**
*Timescale may increase depending on workload
**Specific criteria must be met as per HP’s partner guidelines
All you need to do is simply upload your requirement to the portal and receive your competitive quotation back within 48 hours.
If you need help with the tool, or have questions surrounding a networking opportunity then please do not hesitate to contact us.
I thought I would share Paul Kembers ISS facts of the week with you all, these facts are really good snippets of information that have proven to be very useful.
If you have any questions or need any help with HP servers or storage then please do not hesitate to contact us.
HP in a conference in Las Vegas has announced the Gen 8 Series of self sufficient ProLiant Servers.
New Range of G8 Servers
HP ProLiant Gen8 servers are the result of a $300 million, two-year program called Project Voyager, the company’s initiative to redefine data centre economics by automating every aspect of the server life cycle. To date, Project Voyager has resulted in more than 900 patents filed and a new systems architecture called HP ProActive Insight architecture, which will span the entire HP Converged Infrastructure.
With intelligent technologies that automate tasks and significantly improve uptime, HP ProLiant Gen 8 with HP ProActive Insight architecture addresses the top concerns of enterprises.
HP ProLiant Gen8’s ProActive Insight architecture comprises powerful hardware and software that delivers server life cycle automation. At the same time, it provides continuous intelligence on server health, power usage and other important diagnostics. As a result, online system updates can be deployed three times faster, with as much as 93 percent less downtime.
These innovations dramatically accelerate application performance and also allow administrators to maximise server availability by eliminating common problems that cause failures, downtime and data loss. These include:
Integrated Lifecycle Automation – speeds application deployment and proactively improves uptime by automating manual tasks. As a result, clients can increase productivity, reduce errors and greatly simplify operations. With these improvements, HP ProLiant Gen8 servers enable IT staff to save more than 30 days of administration time a year per person in a typical 10,000 square-foot data centre.
Dynamic Workload Acceleration – improves data-intensive storage performance by almost seven times with a converged server and storage design that leverages intelligent, HP solid-state technologies. Smart analytics and workload-aware intelligence enable HP ProLiant Gen8 servers to adapt in real time to optimise system performance and efficiency. Unique HP Advanced Data Mirroring and smart algorithms ensure data is as much as 1,000 times safer, speeding Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) initialisation by 95 percent.
Automated Energy Optimisation – delivers nearly double compute-per-watt capacity and saves energy costs with HP ProLiant Gen8 energy-efficient servers and industry-first intelligent racks that feature built-in sensors. HP 3-D Sea of Sensors automates inventory management and precisely tracks power usage per rack and server, allowing administrators to easily optimise workload placement. Competitive servers force organisations to manually inventory, track and measure power and cooling. This requires extensive resources, incurs risk of downtime due to configuration errors and drives up energy costs.
Proactive Service and Support – enables clients to achieve a 95 percent first time issue resolution rate with HP Insight Online, the industry’s most comprehensive cloud-based, IT management and personalised support portal. HP Insight Online is integrated with HP ProLiant Gen8 intelligent technologies, HP Insight Remote Support and HP services, and offers clients a converged server management and support experience through the automatic collection of server assets, health, contract, warranty and support case information. Data is available securely anywhere, anytime, allowing clients to grant access to HP-authorised channel partners via the HP ServiceONE program, providing proactive problem prevention in addition to rapid resolution.
Here is the G8 Release video.
From the moment your first HP ProLiant Gen8 server emerges from the box, you will feel, see, and sense the built-in quality. Guided by HP“Client-2-Innovation” design philosophy, HP engineers and developers created more than 150 innovations that help you get tasks done simply, reliably, and with confidence. These next-generation servers were designed for the way you work.
Clients who have trusted ProLiant servers for years will be instantly familiar with the consistent experience and yet appreciative of the attention to detail of the new features and design. Taken together, the sweeping architecture and design innovations in the new ProLiant family will help your IT team increase productivity, improve server and application uptime, and drive higher levels of system performance.
These benefits are delivered by a unique set of ProLiant innovations that encompass:
Designed-in quality: Virtually eliminate common problems that cause downtime and data loss.
Hassle-free serviceability: Increase your productivity and confidence during setup, upgrade, and repair.
Intuitive simplicity: Reduce errors and improve productivity with an intuitive, efficient user experience.
If you need any help with the new range of Gen 8 servers, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
Today enterprise data centers have to be as agile as possible. It is imperative so your datacenter can keep up with the speed and scale of a fast moving/growing business. Using a virtualization solution gives you this needed agility. It has been widely adopted to increase flexibility and optimise return on investment, however as with anything the larger something gets the more complex it becomes.
In order to deploy and manage a virtualization environment, you need to make significant financial and resource investments. It’s no wonder then that the majority of IT managers consider reducing the complex nature of virtualization as one of their top priorities.
Today, HP is making it much easier for your organisation to overcome this complexity by capitalising more fully on virtualization. With the introduction of HP VirtualSystem, HP now offers a faster, simpler path to a virtualized environment by changing the ground rules for the deployment of virtualized systems.
HP VirtualSystem reduces complexity and extends the HP Converged Infrastructure by delivering solutions optimised for server and desktop virtualization. Built, configured, and shipped as a single solution, HP VirtualSystem supplies a complete, high performance virtualized environment with pre-tested and pre-configured server, storage, networking, management, and virtualization resources. Factory and field integrated HP VirtualSystem helps you simplify data center modernization and application optimisation by putting you on a faster path to virtualized environments—and to greater IT agility.
You have a choice of modular systems for medium to very large enterprise deployments—HP VirtualSystem VS1, VS2, VS3, or VS MC1.
HP VirtualSystem VS1 - Designed to support up to 750 virtual machines (VMs)
HP ProLiant DL380/DL360 G7 rack-mount servers: Continuing to deliver on their heritage of engineering excellence with increased flexibility and performance, enterprise-class up time, and HP Insight Control manageability
HP P4500 SAN storage system:Delivering enterprise functionality that enhances virtual environments, simplifies management, and reduces costs; easy to deploy, scale, and maintain, HP P4500 SAN ensures that crucial business data remains available
HP Insight Control: Enabling you to manage your infrastructure in half the time; reduces unplanned downtime by 83%
HP Thermal Logic technology: Providing energy awareness and power optimisation; reduces facility power and cooling costs by 30%
HP VirtualSystem VS2 - Offering support for up to 2500 VMs, HP VirtualSystem VS2 includes HP Thermal Logic and HP Insight Control technologies, as well as the following best-of-breed components:
HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure: Providing all the power, cooling, and I/O infrastructure you need to support modular server, interconnect, and storage components today and for years to come; greater density with more blades per enclosure
HP ProLiant BL460c G7 server blades: Offering the ideal balance of performance, scalability, and expandability, making it the standard for data center computing; industry-leading I/O capacity and throughput.
HP P4800 SAN for BladeSystem Storage System: Completely converged within the HP BladeSystem architecture, offering exceptional performance, efficiency, and density with all-inclusive SAN management software; enables affordable enterprise storage functionality.
HP Virtual Connect: Wire-once, change ready infrastructure; uses 95% fewer cables,network interface cards, and switches
HP VirtualSystem VS3 - Focusing on the needs of today’s enterprise, HP VirtualSystem VS3 provides support for up to 6000 VMs. In addition to HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, HP ProLiant BL460c G7 server blades, HP Insight Control, HP Virtual Connect, and HP Thermal Logic technologies, HP VS3 also includes:
HP 3PAR Storage System: Advanced storage system that offers multi-tenancy greater efficiency (thin provisioning), high performance, and autonomic tiering.
HP VirtualSystem VS MC1 - Built for customers’ most demanding, mission critical environments, HP VirtualSystem VS MC1 enables customers to consolidate and reduce costs, using the right virtualization technology for a workload’s requirements, isolated as need be, meeting pre-defined service level agreements. Includes the following components:
HP Integrity Superdome 2 Server hardware: Delivering always-on resiliency; dynamic optimisation; and ultimate, electrical isolation between sensitive workloads within a converged, modular, bladed platform that simplifies and unifies IT
Mission-critical HP-UX 11i v3 Virtual Server Environment OE: Offering additional resiliency, scalability, security, and comprehensive, and integrated virtualization and management; instantly adjusts resources to meet dynamic business requirements per pre-defined service level agreements while enabling consolidation, which reduces costs HP 3PAR SAN (F400) storage: For the most efficient thin technology-based storage offering multi-tenancy, autonomic tiering, thin provisioning support, and simplicity of management for demanding workloads; enables organisations to react quickly and non-disruptively to changing application and infrastructure requirements; intelligent non-disruptive storage reduces capacity requirements by 50%
HP VirtualSystem Overview Video — Why HP VirtualSystem is the fastest path to agile and efficient virtualized application solutions and the clear upgrade to the hybrid cloud.
Please click on the below links for Quickspecs to find out more information based on the various VM offerings for the HP VirtualSystem.
Westcoast are please to announce a new website called Westcoast SmartResources.
This is a great new site that hosts all of our microsites, reseller incentives, events, and tools in one place. This is so you can find everything you need easily and in one place.
The site also hosts our new Gym+ program - this site has ALL our free re-brandable material – you can search by collateral type, or by vendor.
HP Rack-mountable UPS units focus on the three critical areas in data center environments: Power density, Superior battery management and Serviceability.
HP's On-line On Demand hybrid technology optimises efficiency and heat output during general operation. All HP Rack-mountable UPSs ship with the free HP Power Protector Software that incorporates Enhanced Battery Management which is an exclusive patented technology that doubles battery service life, improves battery charge time and provided advanced notice of battery failure. Hot-swappable batteries and intelligent automatic bypass for continuous power improve serviceability and increase uptime.
A Unique Digital Signal Processing system on most rack mount UPS models incorporates a 3 stage power filter with a double conversion line interactive system to provide all of the benefits of an On-line UPS without the side effects of low efficiency, extra heat, and short battery life
All HP UPS have a three year warranty and are automatically covered by a ProLiant Care Pack in the same rack, eliminating the need for costly extended warranties.
There are a number of different units to choose from ranging from the entry level R1500 to the 3 Phase R12000.
If you want to know which UPS you need you can use HP's online UPS power calculator, This allows you to add in different HP hardware so you can see which UPS will suit your environment best.
Click on the image below to go to the UPS sizer.
If you have any questions or need help with providing a UPS power solution, then please do not hesitate to contact the Solutions team.
Going wireless is the easy, versatile way to stay connected. To make it even easier we’ve pulled together three products from our range that when used together will provide the ideal wireless starter set up that can grow as the needs of your business grow.
In order to help your business grow HP are running a promotion where you can claim a Free Wireless Access Point with their Wireless Starter Kit.
How to qualify
Purchase all three products from the qualifying products list, between 1 and 29 February, completethis claim form and HP will refund the cost of the wireless access point!
This offer is limited to ONE qualifying bundle per customer.
Terms and qualifying products apply
If you have a Networking solution you wish to implement or would like help or more details on HP's range of networking solutions, then please do not hesitate to contact the Solutions team.
In order for you to have your own copy of this months offers, We offer them in a easy downloadable PDF for you.
This month HP have a selection of great offers available including a Half Price additional processor when purchased in conjunction with a qualifying HP ProLiant G7 server such as the HP ProLiant DL380 G7.
Other offers throughout February can see customers claim a Free HP ProLiant MicroServer when purchasing HP Windows SBS Essentials 2011, the popular £100 cash back on the HP ProLiant MicroServer and 50% cash back on the HP P2000 G3 Arrays continues for a further month.
Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.
HP are offering a **Free MicroServer** when you buy Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Essentials ROK Edition, This offer is designed to help micro and small businesses operate at the same technology level as much larger organisations, but without the added costs and complexities of managing an intricate IT infrastructure.
Purchase HP Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011 ROK Edition (652442-A21) with an HP MicroServer (658553-421), between 1 and 29 February 2012, complete this claim form and HP will refund the cost of the HP MicroServer!
Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Essentials provides a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution, allowing small businesses to retain core infrastructure and enables simple, single sign-on experiences with cloud-based service. It is ideal as a first server for small businesses with up to 10 users
Terms and conditions apply, click here for details.
For qualifying products click here
If you need any help with providing a server solution please do not hesitate to contact the solutions team.
