HP Unlocks Two Decades of Complex, Proprietary Technology in Networking Market

Company runs newest data center entirely on HP Networking equipment

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 20, 2010 – HP today announced that its newest internal data center is experiencing faster information throughput and lower energy consumption by running entirely on HP Networking equipment.

The new data center, located in the Houston area, is one of six internal facilities running HP’s worldwide business operations. It currently includes 34 3Com core routing devices, more than 300 HP ProCurve switches and four TippingPoint intrusion detection and protection devices.

The new HP Networking portfolio – which integrates the 3Com portfolio – has enabled the company to achieve twice the port and capacity density, and a 50 percent reduction in power consumption versus previous solutions. Using an architecture built on open standards, the company’s global IT organization worked with HP Networking teams to redesign the architecture with new products.

Improvements within the data center include the core router throughput performance of the 3Com product, which exceeds 2.1 billion packets of data per second, versus less than 1 billion for the current market leader’s fastest data center product. 3Com also has full multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) in all chassis, while competitive offerings do not.

“We’re not locked into proprietary protocols that many in the IT industry are familiar with and this gives us more flexibility to change as our business grows,” said Ken Gray, vice president, Infrastructure, Global Information Technology Organization, HP. “We’re Cisco-free in this data center and have a plan to extend this freedom across all of our internal IT data centers next year.”

HP began construction of the new data center in February 2009 and finished the network build out last month. The data center contains a 25,000-square-foot cell that runs production applications, and a second cell of the same size is near completion. The building also can be expanded by two additional 25,000-square-foot cells.

The network within the data center consists of HP ProCurve at the switching layer. All routing and intrusion detection and protection systems are 3Com – now part of the new HP Networking portfolio announced today. The number and type of layer-three device models installed are as follows:

—    20 x H3C S9505-E switches – deployed as distribution routers in HP data centers

—    5 x H3C S5820X switches – deployed primarily for backup networks

—    4 x H3C 12508 switches – deployed as core routers for the data center

—    5 x H3C SR8808 routers – deployed as backbone routers within the data center

—    4 x TippingPoint 5100N intrusion protection systems – deployed between the core and distribution layers

Among many features of the new data center, it offers increased flexibility in how power is distributed in the cell, twice the power – at 4.8 megawatts per cell – and a higher-density design that allows for more computing capacity per square foot. The data center joins another in Houston and two each in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, providing business continuity and disaster recovery for all of HP’s operations.

“This networking technology provides a true competitive choice in a space that has needed more choices for almost two decades,” said Randy Mott, executive vice president and chief information officer, HP. “These new products, along with HP’s Converged Infrastructure portfolio, are something every CIO should be taking advantage of.”

Mott will be speaking with Marius Haas, senior vice president and general manager, Networking, HP, during a keynote presentation at Interop in Las Vegas on April 27 at 8:30 a.m. PT.

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