HP Offers Small Data Center Consulting Through Channel

Looking to make inroads to the smaller end of the data center market, HP has
brought its data center consulting services to its channel partners for sale to
small and midsize data centers.

The services comprise the following three offerings: a basic capacity survey,
infrastructure condition capability and analysis, and energy condition
capability and analysis.

“Our goal is to work more hand in hand with our channel partners to take our
deep enterprise service line into that sphere” of small and midsize data
centers, Ian Jagger, worldwide marketing manager for HP Data Center Services,
told Channel Insider. The services are targeted at data centers of less than
5,000 square feet. HP estimates that there are 150,000 such data centers in
existence.

Today’s data centers are evolving into either giant mega data centers or
smaller, specialized niche data centers, according to Jagger. Smaller data
centers are not necessarily run by small businesses as much as they are
dedicated to specific functions such as storage or mission-critical
applications, he said.

Jagger said that new consulting services announced this week have previously
been offered to HP’s biggest customers through its direct sales force, but now
HP is looking to bring the services to smaller customers through its channel
partners. He pointed out that the services are high level and consultants who
provide them are required to hold engineering licenses.

The basic capacity survey looks at the facility’s capacity and looks at
future IT-loading based demands. The infrastructure capability and analysis
looks at the capabilities and limitations of the building that houses the data
center, including electrical and plumbing. The energy analysis looks at the
mechanical and electrical capabilities of the building, finding points where
efficiencies can be gained specific to the facility.

Jagger said all three offerings are custom-based services that have been
structured to be delivered as enterprise-class services.

“As more companies take themselves down a converted infrastructure route, the
more they need to look at the facility and IT as a single entity,” Jagger said.

Jagger said the services are priced based on HP’s mapping of what the workloads
and deliverables would be and packaged as a unit of service called an HP Care
Pack that is broken down in $100 units, making it something that he said can be
resold by the channel.

In addition, HP is now offering support for multiple vendors’ products, remote
support and educational support services through close work with the HP
services organization that used to be EDS.
Supported products include those from IBM,
Dell, Sun, Microsoft, VMware, Citrix and Novell, among others.

HP has also added active chat, enabling customers to initiate online chat with
support if they prefer that to a phone call.

And the company will offer a half-day data center training symposium available
to executives, facilities managers and IT managers, designed to help them
understand how data center staff effectiveness can be improved. The session,
offered by HP, is also available for resale through the channel.