Tips on Buying HP Servers

HP recently took the lead in server salesfrom IBM, although there is very little in it. That leap ahead may well be the result of a very busy time for the company since our previous server snapshot more than a year ago. This includes a refresh of the entire Integrity and ProLiant lines, as well as HP making a major play on convergence.

“HP has invested a lot in systems management and providing single pane of glass management for spanning multiple chip architectures and operating systems,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group. “This is a compelling and powerful value proposition and is resonating with customers.”

ProLiant Servers

HP ProLiant servers appear to now be the primary focus of HP. The company owns more than one-third of the x86 server space, well ahead of the competition. According to Olds, HP (NYSE: HPQ) is at around 35 percent in this area, compared to Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) with 21 percent in second spot.

Users have a great deal of choice with the OEM, as it offers dozens of servers that cover the entire x86 gamut. More models are coming out on a monthly basis.

HP’s Server Line Up at a Glance

In March, for example, HP added the BL280c, BL2x220c, BL460c, BL490cG6 server blades and the WS460c G6 workstation blade. In addition, rack-optimized servers were added — the DL160, DL170h, DL180, DL320, DL360 and DL380 G6. The ProLiant ML330 and ML350 G6 tower servers were releases for small business workloads, while the SL160z, SL170z and SL2x170z G6 were designed for scale-out environments.

Read the rest at ServerWatch.