HP Targets Growing Markets with Ultra-dense Blade and Affordable Server Line for Small- and Medium-size Businesses

The HP ProLiant BL30p blade server, with 32-bit compute power, offers customers a smaller design and enhanced performance features providing all the benefits of greater density, without sacrificing performance. HP was the first major vendor to ship blade technology and is currently the only vendor to offer customers their choice of one-, two- and four-processor blade servers.

The HP ProLiant BL30p shares the existing BL p-class infrastructure, allowing customers to install future blades without changing power, cooling, management or interconnect devices. With 16 blades per 6U (10.5-inch) enclosure, a full, single, standard rack of HP ProLiant BL30p servers can provide up to 192 processors.

Available with the latest dual Intel® Xeon™ processors, the HP ProLiant BL30p is designed for application servers, Web hosting, e-commerce, computational clusters and grid computing and is optimized for compute density with minimal or no local storage. The server offers optional dual-port Fibre Channel support for storage area network (SAN) implementations and clustering capabilities enabling data center consolidation, high availability and rapid application deployment. The HP ProLiant BL30p supports the industry-leading HP StorageWorks portfolio as well as select third-party Fibre Channel SANs.

The ProLiant BL30p is the latest addition to HP's broad industry-standard server portfolio, which includes the fastest Intel Xeon processors and AMD Opteron™ 200 series processors. Blades are the fastest growing server market segment, and HP plans to continue its innovation in this area, including the introduction of an ultra-dense, dual AMD Opteron processor-based blade server in the second half of the year.

New HP ProLiant ML110 server brings value, power to SMB market

The first server in the new ML100 series, the low-cost HP ProLiant ML110 server offers simplicity, reliability and proven, innovative features that allow small- and medium-size businesses to focus on the needs of their business rather than having to deal with IT-related issues.

The ProLiant ML110 has been specifically designed for SMB customers who need solutions for file sharing, Web and mail messaging and general-purpose functions including firewalls and virtual private servers. The compact device offers server functionality at desktop pricing along with the reliability customers have come to expect from ProLiant servers. A faster central processing unit (CPU) and twice the CPU cache give SMBs better overall performance and faster response times than the previous generation of processors.

"As a small business, we don't have time or resources to fashion a solution through multiple vendors," said Mike Tillges, president, One Source Logistics. "With the ProLiant ML110 and HP StorageWorks DAT 72 tape drive, HP helped us to create a reliable, high-performance solution to host our ERP application and to securely back up 16 GB of mission-critical data daily."

"Three out of four customers we create solutions for are small businesses," said Donald Stewart, service manager and consulting engineer, Turning Point Solutions Group. "We really needed an alternative server platform from a top-tier vendor that combined simplicity and affordability with proven performance and support. The HP ProLiant ML110 is easy to set up and expand and comes with a reputation we and our customers can trust."

Enhanced management capabilities helps make enterprises adaptive

HP has enhanced the management capabilities for servers with updates to the integrated Lights-Out (iLO) management processor available in many ProLiant servers. The optional iLO Advanced Pack now features seamless integration of the iLO remote console with Microsoft Windows® Terminal Services Remote Desktop for Administration for secure, high-performance remote administration during any server state. Also, the iLO Advanced virtual media feature now supports Linux environments enabling deployment and update of software, firmware and ROM over the Internet to remote systems saving time and travel costs.

The management tools for ProLiant servers, including Systems Insight Manager and the optional ProLiant Essentials software like the iLO Advanced pack, improve server availability and help reduce the time and resources required to administer and maintain ProLiant servers. To date, more than 500,000 ProLiant Essentials software licenses have been sold, demonstrating the value of the technology as customers incorporate it into their adaptive management plans.

Pricing and availability

The HP ProLiant ML110 server is available today, pre-loaded with Windows Small Business Server, starting at an estimated U.S. list price of $499,(1) with internal storage up to 320 gigabytes for ATA models and 288 gigabytes for SCSI models. The server is available with the Intel Celeron® processor at 2.6 gigahertz or the Intel Pentium® 4 processor at 2.8 GHz or 3.0 GHz with 1-megabyte cache, and also runs the Linux and Netware operating systems.

The HP ProLiant BL30p blade server is expected to be available in the United States in the second calendar quarter, supporting Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Pricing and full specifications will be released at that time.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the last four fiscal quarters, HP revenue totaled $74.7 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.

(1) Actual prices may vary.

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Intel, Pentium and Celeron are registered trademarks and Xeon is a trademark of Intel Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
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This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003, and reports filed after the Form 10-K. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.