HP introduces ProLiant Gen8 Servers to enhance virtualised performance

INDUSTRY

HP recently unveiled two new HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) four-socket servers that deliver increased compute power in less space, enabling clients to achieve return on investment within three months.

The industry’s first four-socket servers to incorporate HP ProActive Insight Architecture,the HP ProLiant BL660c and DL560 Gen8 servers significantly reduce the time spent on maintenance tasks through high levels of automation and continuous monitoring of system health, saving IT staff more than 30 days of administration time a year.

Clients are continuously virtualising their compute-intensive applications in order to achieve greater utilisation and efficiency, and to facilitate the move to private and hybrid clouds. Many clients have virtualised the basic infrastructure and smaller workloads, but a challenge still remains with more complex and higher-end workloads. Clients often face performance bottlenecks, data-center footprint and power limitations, and inadequate memory capacity from traditional two-socket servers.   

As building blocks for HP Converged Infrastructure, these multiprocessor servers satisfy the need for high-end compute power that enables clients to extend end-to-end virtualisation and provide a foundation for creating private and hybrid clouds.

With a three-to-one sever-consolidation rate and reduced server footprint in the data center, the HP ProLiant BL660c Gen8 server offers four-socket density in half the size of previous generations, and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 30%.

Additionally, the HP ProLiant DL560 Gen8 server provides a space-minimising four-socket server in a 2U form factor without compromising performance, scalability or expansion requirements.

The HP ProLiant BL660c and HP ProLiant DL560 Gen8 servers were designed to drive better performance for complex, virtualised environments so clients can access their data faster, optimise their system to achieve higher-performing workloads and add more virtual machines (VMs) per server. The new servers deliver:

-Improved storage performance with the first integrated PCIe 3.0 storage technology, providing twice the input/output bandwidth and up to six times faster performance than previous generations.

-Enhanced VM support with a memory design that is five times more dense than competitive offeringsand delivers lower latency than previous generations.

-Up to 50% better memory performance than competitive offerings, enabling more consolidation of virtual applications on fewer servers.

The new servers drive a balance of economics and density for customers, while optimising application performance to help speed innovation and business growth. For example, ZTE Corporation, one of the world’s largest smartphone vendors, needed to break through its capacity limitation and enhance the adaptability of the traditional data center in order to be able to keep up the business rapid growth.

“We needed to modernise our data centers in order to keep up with rapid growth and to ensure continued service to our customers across 140 countries,” said Yu Yuan, product manager, ZTE Corporation—Guangdong NewStart Technology Service Ltd. “We chose the HP ProLiant DL 560 Gen8 server over the competition because it offered increased virtual machine densities to reduce space and cost, while improving performance, which enabled us to develop a platform to build private clouds.” 

Built on HP ProActive Insight Architecture

HP ProLiant Gen8 servers redefine expectations and economics in the data center by leveraging HP ProActive Insight Architecture to offer new four-socket servers with unprecedented lifecycle automation. With a direct connection to the HP Insight Online portal, these servers accelerate problem resolution and reduce unplanned downtime. Through self monitoring, self diagnosing and proactive support, clients can resolve problems up to 66% faster. 

The advanced technologies of the HP ProLiant Gen8 portfolio, tested in real-world data centers, were built with 150 client-inspired design innovations that can virtually eliminate common server problems that cause failures, downtime and data loss.