November 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

HP Technical EG Solutions Team  

Westcoast EG Solutions Team wishes you a Happy Halloween for 2013

Westcoast EG Solutions Team wishes you a Happy Halloween for 2013

Regards

HP Technical EG Solutions Team 

CUSTOMER ADVISORY - DL360p Gen8 Processor heat sink change

NOTICE

The HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 servers are now being manufactured worldwide exclusively with a new design screw-down type heat sink and not the original caged heat sink which is currently being shipped with the processor option kits.

This will mean that if you order a processor option kit you may get a kit with the wrong heatsink type and therefore you will be unable to install the additional processor.

This is a UK wide non specific distribution issue (all of HP distribution partners are affected).
HP is aware of the issue and for the meantime will be shipping out replacement heat sinks on a case by case basis.

If you have this issue please speak to your Westcoast account manager and we will arrange for the new heat sink to be sent out. Please make sure you have the part number of the server as well as the serial number and your order number with Westcoast.

HP has apologised for the inconvenience on this issue and have issued an advisory which can be found here:  HP Support document

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards

HP Technical EG Solutions Team 

October 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

HP Smart Array P22x / P42x Series cards now support Raid 6 without needing to purchase a license.

HP have just launched a Firmware update for their Smart Array controllers that will upgrade your Smart array card to be able to run Raid 6* without having to purchase the Smart Array Advanced Pack as this is now part of the base firmware.

This effects the following Smart Array controllers, P220i, P222, P420i, P420, P421, P721m, and P822

You will still need an additional license key to use HP SmartCache.

*You still will need to have a minimum of 512mb a Cache on the controller.

So How do you get it? Go to this link where there is a download section and instructions.

If you have any questions or need help with a HP server solution then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us and we will be happy to help.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team   

Purchase a HP BladeSystem Starter kit and get the c7000 enclosure for £1

Based on HP BladeSystem, the world’s most advanced blade infrastructure with Gen8 technologies, increase business demand for instant access from anywhere to any service in real-time to drive the needs for virtualized environment. HP will support your BladeSystem environment by offering you the HP c7000 Platinum Enclosure for only £1.

Choose one of the three HP BladeSystem Starter Kits that will perfectly fit your business needs and get the HP c7000 Platinum Enclosure for £1.

Each starter kit comes with 2x ProLiant Gen8 blades, 2x Virtual Connect modules E-LTU and Proactive Care Services. Three types of configurations are available.

Entry Level
Ideal Workloads: Web Hosting/Services in the Enterprise space; Single Application on a single server; basic infrastructure applications:

2 x HP BK 420c Gen8 E5-2450 2P 24GB Svr
2 x HP BLc VC Flex-10/10D Module Opt
2 x HP Insight Control ML/DL/BL Bundle E-LTU Proactive Care Services

Converged
Ideal Workloads: Virtualisation and consolidation, IT infrastructure, web infrastructure, High Performance Computing. Choice of two packages:

Server set A
2 x HP BL460c Gen8 E5-2660 2P 64GB Svr
2 x HP BLc VC FlexFabric 10GB/24-port-Opt
2 x HP Insight Control ML/DL/BL Bundle E-LTU Proactive Care Services

Server set B
2 x HP BL465c Gen 8 6380 1P 1gG Svr
2 x HP BLc VC FlexFabric 10GB/24-port Opt
2 x HP Insight Control ML/DL/BL Bundle E-LTU Proactive Care Services

Scale up
Ideal Workloads: Virtualisation and consolidation, business processing (ERP, CRM, batch, etc), database, application development, industrial R&D, data warehouse:

2 x HP BL660c Gen8 E5-4650 4P 128GB Svr
2 x HP BLc VC FlexFabric 10GB/24-port Opt
2 x HP Insight Control ML/DL/BL Bundle E-LTU Proactive Care Service

If you have any questions with regards this offer or help with a solution using the HP BladeSystem then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us and we will be happy to help.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team   

September 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team   

August 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team  

July 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

Evaluate a 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage solution with Westcoast

Westcoast are now offering the chance for you to evaluate a 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage unit through one of our partners. Resellers can use MDF to fund if required.

For more information or if you need a 3PAR solution please get in contact with us and we will be happy to help.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team  

EVENT : Westcoast Simply StoreIT SMB Academy

Westcoast Solutions Lab

HP Simply StoreIT is a programme designed to take the stress out of choosing the right storage products that meet your customers’ business needs. The programme provides solution guides and reference architectures for HP channel partners and SMB customers to accelerate solution delivery.

These solution assets target specific challenges in the critical areas of virtualization, backup and data protection, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server, and file consolidation. The programme includes tools, resources and incentives to help channel partners accelerate time to revenue with HP storage solutions.

Come to Westcoast’s Simply StoreIT SMB Academy and learn more about Simply StoreIT and latest storage portfolio updates.

When: Tuesday, 25th June 2013
Where: Westcoast Solutions Lab

REGISTER NOW

For more information about Simply StoreIT visit www.hp.com/go/SimplyStoreIT
If you have any questions about HP Storage call our pre-sales team on 0118 912 6336

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

Stay up to date with the latest news from HP Storage and Servers with Westcoast

Selling HP Servers & Storage made easy with iQuote – Webinar
Sign up to our webinar to learn more about iQuote and be the first one to hear about the upcoming promotions and iQuote incentive.

Date: Friday, 7th June 2013
Time: 10am – 10.30am (GMT)
Click here to attend http://microsites.westcoast.co.uk/events/events/view.php?id=517)

HP High Noon – WEBINAR
Be the first one to hear about the significant announcements around P2000, StoreOnce & StoreServ.

Date: Monday, 10th June 2013
Time: 10.30am – 11.30am (GMT)
Click here to attend http://microsites.westcoast.co.uk/events/events/view.php?id=519 
 
HP & Westcoast’s Simply StoreIT SMB Academy – Event
Come to our event and learn more about HP’s strategy for the SMB, the latest updates to HP’s storage portfolio and sales tools and programs available from HP & Westcoast.

Date: Tuesday, 25th June 2013
Location: Westcoast Solutions Lab
Click here to attend http://microsites.westcoast.co.uk/events/events/view.php?id=518

For more information about Westcoast’s events, call your Account Manager on 0118 912 6000.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

June 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

There are some amazing deals to be had on HP Top Value servers this month

Just a quick heads up, HP have some cracking deals on pricing surrounding their Top Value server range this month. For more information pick up the phone and speak to your account manager for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

May 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

Make your life easier with HP Factory Express.

Factory Express is a robust portfolio of flexible, pre-priced, configured, customised and integrated factory solutions and deployment services for CTO solutions.

Factory Express reduces the amount of work needed to deploy hardware by configuring/integrating your hardware at the time of assembly resulting in faster time to solution by fully configuring the rack servers and storage before shipment each with complete with state-of-the-art cable management and asset tags. All of the configuration/integration are done in ISO 9000: 2000 environments, providing quality processes that lead to consistent and more stable configurations.

For example, here is a picture of a delivery of servers and rack components to a customer site which has not used a Factory express option. A lot of time would be taken doing a inventory count and the opening of the many boxes not to mention the removal and disposal of the shipping materials on top of all this as well.Then after all the kit has been accounted for you would need to install all the components for each server and rack - Very time consuming.

In this example you can see the same solution but using the Factory express options, as you can see there are a lot less boxes as everything is already installed into the racks.

This would save you or your customer a lot of time and effort in not only the time it takes to unbox everything but to install all the options into the relevant servers etc.

There are many different options you can have for Factory Express, to see these different options and what they involve then please go to http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/99364-0-0-225-121.html

If you are interested in receiving more information on HP's Factory Express service then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

Westcoast can show you how SharePoint can work for your customer

SharePoint introduces new ways to share your work and work with others, organise your projects and teams and discover people and information.

Share
Share your ideas, discover answers and keep track of what your colleagues are working with new social features throughout SharePoint. Publish content to SharePoint from any Office application and share with people inside and outside your organisation. Share documents, update your activity feed and keep in touch with your colleagues from your mobile phone or tablet.

Organise
Organize all your projects and tasks to get visibility into upcoming deliverables across SharePoint, Outlook and Microsoft Project. Set up a new team site in minutes track meeting notes and bring together all your team's email and documents in one place. Sync your content in SharePoint to your desktop with SkyDrive Pro.

Discover
Connect with people across your organisation and easily discover interests, past projects and documents they've worked on.Turn raw data into gorgeous interactive reports with Excel 2013 and publish to SharePoint to share insights with the people you work with.Customize and narrow your search to deliver more relevant results, and get recommendations on people and documents to follow.

Build
Build apps on common web technologies like JavaScript, HTML and oAuth with the new Cloud App Model for SharePoint.Make your apps available to everyone to try and buy through the public Store or only available to your employees through the corporate catalog. Use familiar design tools and flexible controls to create dynamic intranet and Internet sites to share your organisation's vision with everyone.

Manage
Reduce your infrastructure costs and extend the boundaries of sharing by running SharePoint in the cloud with Office 365.New archiving, eDiscovery and case management capabilities extend across SharePoint, Exchange and Lync.Spend more time delivering innovation and less time managing infrastructure with advances in SharePoint scale, performance and management capabilities. 

To see how to make SharePoint work for your customer please book a demo at the Westcoast Solutions Lab

If you need help with any additional details regarding a SharePoint solution then please call our Microsoft Team (See contact us) and they will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

Unlock BYOD opportunity with HP & Westcoast – Webinar

The "bring your own device" (BYOD) market will be worth £2 billion to UK software and IT services suppliers over the next five years. By 2016, two-thirds of the workforce will own smart phones, and 40% of the workforce will be mobile by 2016.

All businesses need to ensure that employees and guests receive the same quality and uninterrupted network access whether on a wired or wireless connection.

Grab a slice of the growing #BYOD market. Register to our Webinar and learn more about HP’s new BYOD Solution. 

• When: Tuesday, 7th May 2013 
• Time: 10.00am – 11.00am 
• Click here to attend - http://bit.ly/11z0xrG

If you need help with any additional details regarding a HP BYOD solution then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team 

April 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team     

Westcoast now on Facebook

Westcoast have now created an all new Facebook page which will cover all of whats going on at Westcoast.

This page is not just limited to the solutions team, but it will cover all aspects of what services we provide throughout our whole product range with new product launches, promotions and news.

If your business is on Facebook Please like our page to receive live updates from us.

To visit our page please goto https://www.facebook.com/WestcoastLimited

If you need any more information please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

The Westcoast Training Bus is back by popular demand

Westcoast Training Bus

Following the huge success of last year’s Windows 8 Bus Tour, Westcoast announced that the training bus is back on the road and will be touring the UK throughout April, May and June.

During the next few weeks, a Double Decker bus will be transformed into a training lab on wheels showcasing new technologies from HP & Microsoft. Westcoast is taking the Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) on the road and the bus will also be packed with the latest HP kit, including convertible computers, tablet hardware, wireless printers and servers.

“The recent months have seen several exciting product launches from our key vendors. We understand that it’s not easy for our resellers and their sales force to find time and attend every training event and product launch, so yet again we are bringing the training facility to them. To educate our customers on how to implement the latest technology, we are offering sales and product demonstrations by our specialist trainers and a hands-on experience with the HP & Microsoft products. We strongly believe that training is the key to growth for Westcoast partners, while at the same time helping end-user customers to increase efficiency and productivity in a variety of ways,” commented Phil Bell, Marketing Manager; Westcoast.

As of today resellers can request the bus for an on site reseller training and end-user product demonstration. There are various training modules to choose from, covering the latest product ranges from Microsoft and HP, including Microsoft CIE, wireless and large format print, PCs as well as some of the most talked about solutions from the Enterprise Group, such as BYOD and Gen8 Server Systems. Resellers interested in training, can find more information about the modules available on Westcoast’s microsite.

“We are very excited to be hosting the Westcoast Training Bus and look forward to uncovering many new opportunities for our partners, helping them to start the new financial year off strong,” Phil Bell.

For more information about the bus, please visit: www.westcoast.co.uk/bus

If you need any more information please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

March 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team    

HP LTO 6 Tape Drive £1,000 Cash Back Offer

HP are currently offering up to £1,000 end user cash back on selected LTO 6 Tape Drives and Autoloaders.
There has never been a better time to upgrade your exisitng tape backup to a larger faster unit.

For qualifing products and the claim form please click here..

If you need help with any additional details regarding LTO6 or need a solution then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

Double Points on QLogic EMEA Rewards

While today’s servers have more ‘built-in’ capability than those of just a few years ago, the reality is that a significant number just don’t have the connectivity options required to work in the user’s environment.

• 20% of the servers deployed today require some kind of add-on adaptors to provide additional LAN or SAN connectivity.
• 50% of these add-on adaptors are not sold at the point of server sale. Don’t you think this is a missed opportunity? 

If you're not selling HP QLogic adaptors as part of your server solutions, you're missing out on a great opportunity to increase deal size and margins.

To claim your rewards please go to www.qlogicrewards-emea.com

If you need help with any additional details or need solution using QLogic Switches, Adaptors etc. then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

HP Introduces Industry's Only Complete Unified BYOD Solution

New unified wired and wireless solutions that deliver a simple, scalable and secure network supporting BYOD initiatives are now available from HP.

More and more enterprises are seeing significant benefits from allowing employees to choose the device they use to get their jobs done, and are adopting bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives. In fact, a CIO survey conducted at Gartner Summits in the United States and Europe indicated that, by 2014, 80 percent of the global workforce will be eligible to participate in a BYOD program. While the BYOD trend increases flexibility and productivity, it introduces a host of new challenges for your IT administrators.

A key concern for IT is how to effectively secure and manage the network and application access for personally-owned devices. User‑owned devices cannot easily be identified, and therefore managed by your IT department. Malware infected clients can compromise your network security when allowed access to the network or vital business applications and information Security is not the only challenge. You might still rely on traditional separate wired and wireless networks and management tools that increase maintenance overhead and can’t provide the flexible access policies that personally-owned devices require. Your enterprise needs to think beyond essential BYOD access and consider the critical need for unified wired and wireless visibility and management to streamline your overall network management

What are the advantages of a HP BYOD solution?
The HP BYOD solution solves challenges holistically with the following approaches:

• Provides comprehensive user access management that delivers device onboarding, provisioning, and monitoringSupports multivendor environment with in-depth policy management
• Meets the growing demand for wireless access with enterprise-scale wireless infrastructure
• Allows for a continuous, optimized wireless experience for users

If you need help with any additional details regarding a HP BYOD solution then please read the Press Release or contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

Westcoast Solutions Lab - What we can offer you..

The Westcoast Solutions Lab is Perfect if you sell to SMB's (small and medium businesses) allowing you to demonstrate the latest technology innovations from HP and Microsoft within realistic IT budgets.



If you would like more information or want to book the solutions lab then please go to http://www.westcoast.co.uk/lab for more information.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

February 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!

Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team   

G7 to Gen8 Processor Conversion Suggestions

We have a fair amount of calls regarding processor performance comparisons between the previous generation Intel X56xx Series processors used in the G7 servers and the new Intel E5-26xx processors used in Gen8.

HP have made a nice easy to read G7 to Gen8 processor conversion chart to help assist you in choosing a processor for your needs.

You can either opt for same performance which shows the price saving you will achieve, or you can go for the same price and you will be able to see how much performance you will be gaining.

If you need help with any additional details regarding the new range of Gen8 Servers or need a solution then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

Introducing the HP StoreEver LTO-6 Tape Family

StoreEver LTO-6 Ultrium 6650

HP has launched the sixth-generation of the HP StoreEver LTO Ultrium Tape Technology – HP LTO-6 – across its complete portfolio of tape drives, tape automation and tape media. This enables HP's Tape Partners to continue to tap into this substantial market opportunity with solutions that scale to keep pace with unpredictable data growth, provide a cost-effective data retention tier, and deliver long-term durability for archiving.

What’s new with HP StoreEver LTO-6 Tape?
HP StoreEver LTO-6 delivers twice the capacity of LTO-5 in the same cartridge footprint with up to 6.25 TB (compressed 2.5:1) on a single LTO-6 tape cartridge. As a result massive data archives can be retained in a physically small space. Keeping pace with data growth simply means adding in more data cartridges.

HP StoreEver Tape Libraries allow customers to easily scale both storage capacity and backup performance, through a simple upgrade. Store up to 50 TBs with a HP StoreEver LTO-6 Tape Autoloader, up to 600 TBs with a HP StoreEver Mid-Range Tape Library and up to 44 PBs with a HP StoreEver Enterprise Tape Library4.

HP StoreEver LTO-6 tape drives deliver compressed speeds of up to 400 MB/second or 1.4 TB/hour and therefore enable customers to spend less time ensuring that the business data on their server is protected. Furthermore, HP StoreEver LTO-6 in combination with HP StoreOpen with LTFS, delivers faster access to assets stored on tape.

Increase savings with lower energy requirements:
HP StoreEver LTO-6 tape drives feature a hibernate mode which places the drive in a low power setting when no tape cartridge is in place. Tape drives are already renowned for their extremely low energy use, especially compared with disk drives. The HP LTO-6 hibernate mode means that customers can now benefit from further energy savings while lengthening the life of their tape drive.

Assured long-term data protection:
HP StoreEver LTO-6 builds on five generations of experience and features enhanced technology that assures highly reliable data restores even after long-term archival.

The launch of LTO-6 also sees the addition of a new type of tape media – Barium Ferrite (BaFe) – which complements the traditional Metal Particle (MP) media in HP’s LTO media portfolio. Both media types are designed and tested against the most stringent LTO-6 format specifications and deliver equal levels of capacity, performance and reliability.

If you need help with any additional details regarding LTO6 or need a solution which uses this new technology then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team

A huge THANK YOU to all 21,930 of our readers...

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of the 21,930 readers we had in 2012.
I hope that the content of this blog has helped you and your customers during the last year keep up to date with developments from HP as and when they happen.

Some of the major blog posts that generated the most visits last year were...

• HP 3PAR Starter Kit now even more affordable
• HP ProLiant Gen8 series announced!
• HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 - T1 Storage at a midrange price.
• HP Gen 8 Servers e-Series vs p-Series - Whats the Difference?? 

If there are any particular type of updates you wish to receive more of, please email me and I will be more than happy to add these the blog.

In the meantime I hope you have had a very pleasant new year and are looking forward to what 2013 brings. And as always, If you need help with a solution then please contact us and we will be more than happy to help you.

Regards

Richard Stock
Westcoast ESSN Technical Consultant

January 2013 - HP Server, Storage and Networking offers

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 many of HP's fantastic Storage and Networking promotions have been extended!









Please click the image above to open the PDF for more details.

Regards

Technical ISS Solutions Team