HP Expands OpenView, Showcases New Products

Standing tall at this year's TechXNY/PC Expo, HP released an improved OpenVMS operating system, enhanced storage software, and additional products and services.

by Michael Singer of siliconvalley.internet.com [June 26, 2002]

Hewlett-Packard took an "open" approach to its e-Services platform Tuesday.

Standing tall at this year's TechXNY/PC Expo, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer and printer maker released an improved OpenVMS operating system for AlphaServers that the company said is e-business and Internet-ready. The company also announced enhanced storage software products; new service management products and services; and better Web Services capabilities.

OpenView is a suite of business computer management or "e-services" programs frequently sold to HP 9000 and e3000 business server customers. The products help administrators manage applications, device availability, network conditions and status, system performance, service and program maintenance, and storage resources.

Using technology from recently acquired Compaq Computer, HP said its revised OpenVMS Alpha operation system V7.3-1 helps add to OpenVMS Storage Area Network offerings, improve system availability, improvements in I/O and SMP performance, enhance security, expand the ability to port UNIX applications to OpenVMS and enhance the TCP/IP stack.

The operating system is expected to be available worldwide in July and will be shipping on all new HP AlphaServer DS, ES and GS series systems.

"This release of the OpenVMS operating system, the highest quality ever, continues to lead the competition," said HP OpenVMS Software Group vice president Mark Gorham. "It is further evidence of HP's long-term commitment to the millions of users around the world who value and require the performance and the expanded mission-critical capabilities from OpenVMS."

The OS also includes extended failover capabilities to served devices in an OpenVMS cluster environment; distributed interrupts and interrupt coalescing, as well as reductions in I/O Lock8 usage; multipath tapes on fibre channel; improvements for applications running on SMP systems; Kerberos support and simplified authentication through the new SYS$ACM interface; UNIX portability enhancements; Graphic Configuration Manager (GCM) for OpenVMS—a portable, client/server application; and of course Compaq's Secure Web Browser (CSWB) based on Mozilla.

On the Web Services side, HP unveiled its OpenView Management Solutions. The software allows for better control of XML-based applications including a Transaction Analyzer and Smart Plug-ins for webMethods, IBM WebSphere and Sun ONE Web Services.

HP also announced improvements to its OpenView Storage Data Protector. Based on the capabilities of its predecessor, HP OpenView Omniback II, the software now allows for automated disk-based recovery based on mirroring and snapshot technologies.

The new HP also announced it will roll out some 50 different imaging and printing products between now and early 2003. The company called it a "Big Bang" and said it will spend $1.2 billion ($900 million in manufacturing, $125 million in research and development and $200 million in marketing) to get the job done.

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