HP’s Options after Oracle’s Itanium Gambit

Hewlett-Packard and its HP-UX customers stand to take the biggest hit if Oracle sticks with its decision to end support for Intel’s Itanium platform, though the server maker does have options for easing the situation, according to an analyst.

In particular, HP relatively easily could port HP-UX to its x86 server platform and already has high-end systems based Intel’s Xeon chips that could handle much of the HP-UX workloads, Forrester Research analyst Richard Fichera said in a March 23 blog post.

The company also could build a version of its Itanium-based Superdome systems based on x86 chips, Fichera wrote.

However, despite these options, both HP and its customers will feel the pain of Oracle’s decision, which—regardless of Oracle comments to the contrary—was in part made to hurt HP, he said.

For more, read the eWEEK article: HP Has Options in Wake of Oracle’s Itanium Move: Forrester