HP is introducing a new portfolio of client infrastructure services to complement its existing technology and enterprise services.
The HP Client Infrastructure Services portfolio will provide end-customers with ways to simplify management and increase security of their IT environments. Some of the services included in the new portfolio aren't brand new to HP, while others offer new capabilities from the HP services team.
The new portfolio is geared towards helping end-customers transform their IT infrastructures so it will be better suited to meet their future needs, said Alan Wilson, vice president of the solutions infrastructure practice for technology services at HP Enterprise Business. The portfolio follows on announcements from recent months around converged infrastructure and cloud service offerings.
“What we're announcing this week is client infrastructure. It's the third of three Cs – converged, cloud and client,” Wilson told Channel Insider.
He explained that the explosion of different types of devices and ways to connect to the corporate infrastructure is changing how IT is and will be used and accessed. The IT infrastructure is changing even as many companies are still using infrastructure and operating systems (such as Windows XP) that are several years old. There's a need in the market for services that will aid businesses in better preparing for the IT infrastructure changes to come, he said.
“What we're seeing is a lot of the people in terms of the pressure on IT, the CIOs still have budget restraints and people are still being pragmatic of how they spend their money,” Wilson said. However, the time to re-think the client side of technology is now, he said. The entire client infrastructure services portfolio was designed with the end-user's needs in mind – in particular, how they use and access the corporate infrastructure.
The services are able to create efficiencies in cost and performance among end-users, said Tom Norton, global practice director for Microsoft and client infrastructure consulting services at HP. There's a blending of the client space and the data center at work in the market right now, and the services will address that need, giving IT more control on the client side without negatively affecting the end-users’ ability to do their jobs.
The new HP Client Infrastructure Services portfolio includes several different services.
HP Client Strategy Services are brand new, and were developed to take a business value approach to client architecture strategy and planning. The services will help to accelerate infrastructure transformation and ensure a return on investment.
The purpose of the HP Client Strategy Services is to help customers understand the business value of the client environment and what changes can be made to gain more significant value from it, Norton said. By working with HP, customers will create short- and long-term strategies for architectures that are part of the client infrastructure.
HP Client Migration Services aren't new, but Norton said they're becoming increasingly important as more businesses move from Windows XP to Windows 7.
“They're concerned about ... cost and they're concerned about the impact on their end-users. The whole idea of the portfolio was to address that,” Norton said. Operating system migration is a huge task for most businesses, and it's also one of the most expensive and highest risk projects IT can take on, he added. HP's migration services will ease the burden and significantly reduce the risks of migrating from XP to Windows 7 environments, he said.
HP Client Virtualization Services are also not new services from HP, but they've been packaged into the overall HP Client Infrastructure Services portfolio. HP has worked in the client virtualization space for awhile now, and the services have been tweaked to fit the changing needs of customers, Norton said. The services will help customers get virtualization benefits faster, he said.
HP has also improved its management of thin clients
“For a long time, we've had thin client technology in the environment. Now we have the ability with HP Device Manager software to integrate the device seamlessly ... and also integrate smartphone technologies,” Norton said.
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Hewlett-Packard 
