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Q: What is the Utility Computing Model?
The Utility Computing model is based on the concept of providing IT as a set of services, which can be purchased whenever needed. Similar to the model used by large utility companies-where energy and products and services are made available on a pay-per-use basis-the services model for IT can significantly increase a business's flexibility and help control costs. IT becomes a service instead of a fixed asset.
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Q: Why HP?
HP is a leader in developing and providing utility computing services to businesses across the globe. Long-term research at HP Labs has been at the forefront of utility computing technology for over a decade, providing a solid foundation for HP Flexible Computing Services. In addition, the HP High Performance Computing group and HP Services provide commercialization expertise and long-standing experience in delivering IT services.
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Q: How Can Utility Computing help my business?
There are several compelling business and IT advantages that can be gained by moving to a utility-computing model. With IT delivered as a service, you can gain the following benefits:
IT benefits
- Greater flexibility and responsiveness
- Better utilization of computing resources
- Continuous availability
- Simplified procurement of IT resources
- Predictable and defined service delivery
Business benefits
- Alignment of costs with actual IT usage
- New business possibilities afforded by virtually unlimited capacity
- Ability to match IT requirements to changing business needs
- Potential for reduced costs through sharing of resources
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Q: What computing resources are available?
We bring together a solution that may include HP ProLiant servers, HP StorageWorks arrays, ProCurve networking products, and is delivered from our world-class data center facilities. You have the advantage of HP's proven management capabilities as well as our expertise in Linux® and Microsoft® Windows®.
HP Flexible Computing Services centers provide resources to handle your toughest computing demands. HP compute nodes are continuously refreshed and expanded to include the most current technology and, as a result, we are able to provide a range of platforms and performance levels appropriate to a wide variety of workloads. Our worldwide facilities currently offer HP compute nodes with Intel® Xeon 32-bit, Intel Xeon EM64T 64-bit, AMD Opteron 64-bit, and Itanium® processors.
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Q: How scalable are HP's Flexible Computing Services?
HP Flexible Computing Services can be scaled up to the desired compute capacity-whether 100 CPUs or 1,000.
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Q: What resources are required from my business?
Sufficient personnel resources are also required to achieve positive results. HP will allocate something on the order of two technical people and one project manager. In turn, the customer should be prepared to provide at least one technical person to assist with installation/testing of application(s), one project manager, and one end user for initial testing. HP or the customer can provide the equipment to terminate the network connectivity between the two sites, as needed.
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Q: What applications are well suited for Utility Computing?
HP Flexible Computing Services are targeted at any vertical industry area where there is demand for compute cycles to serve uneven analytical demands, seasonal variations, or business transition compute requirements. Examples of industries where we find strong demand include oil and gas, engineering fields, financial services, and health sciences. Across all of these industries, application test and development capability is also a key area in which utility computing services can play a role, to ease the burden of under-utilized and insufficient IT capacity.
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Q: How do I pay for HP Flexible Computing Services resources?
HP Flexible Computing Resources are scheduled and paid for on a per CPU-hour basis. A customer will contract for a certain number of CPU's for a length of time (1-week minimum, no maximum), and that time will be reserved for that customer. The infrastructure will be dedicated to the customer for the duration to ensure the security and integrity of the customer's session(s). Once the customer's reservation time is finished, the environment will be cleared to make room for the next reservation.
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Q: How do I get started with HP Flexible Computing Services?
HP provides an innovative get-started program called the HP Flexible Computing Club. Joining the club provides a customer with all the start-up assistance and training required to get started. In addition, the customer has access to a trial period on the utility as a demonstration session to learn first hand the value of utility computing in their business.
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