Denzel outlines adaptive evolution

"Now a year later, it's only fair to tell you that we have made huge strides in the last year and we have completed five new acquisitions in support of the adaptive enterprise," she proclaimed.

She thanked the customers who have been supportive of HP's tremendous year and thanked the key event sponsors: Orsyp, Novadigm, Altiris, BEA, Cisco Systems and Oracle.

Denzel summarized adaptive enterprise by stating that it allows business and IT environments to synchronize. "When there are business processes that need to change, it must be automatic and fluid, rather than having to wait for a change. Business and IT must be synchronized to allow for optimization of the business."

Denzel focused on software's role in the adaptive enterprise. "You cannot buy an adaptive enterprise from HP. You build one," she said. "So we write down our thoughts in a reference architecture. The software role and what we are investing in is to link the business process to the applications and infrastructure."

Denzel outlined HP's investment in terms of software. "Adaptive management provides the dynamic link between business and IT. It really wasn't achievable in the past because the industry wasn't standardized. Now this is not only achievable but we are starting to implement these links. All of our IT projects now are really considered business projects," she said.

She used an analogy with a PC Operating system, featuring a CPU, storage, network, and applications.

"You interface with your PC that hopefully masks all the complexity for you. The software layers we are creating at HP are analogous to the PC. If you think about a datacenter, it's just like a PC. It has CPUs, storage, network and applications," she explained.

She further commented that HP is betting that the environment will continue to be heterogeneous for the foreseeable future. "Customers will continue to have choices. The adaptive infrastructure management software will hopefully trade these things off heterogeneously, to mask the complexity for you," she added.

"You build toward this environment with a step-wise approach," Denzel explained. "As you move through better management and control of your resources, services and business processes, your utilization will move towards integration and virtualization."

On this continuum, Denzel says the first step in this dynamic approach is the stability phase, with a firm foundation for IT infrastructure. The second step is an efficient stage with much more automation and aligned resources and IT processes. The final step is the adaptive stage where these processes are linked to the applications and infrastructure, according to Denzel.

Denzel proudly announced that over 30 enhancements in the adaptive arena will be announced throughout the week, including HP OpenView Operations 8.0, HP Systems Insight Manager, Global Service Desk with eSupport, HP ITSM Best Practices for HP OpenView Service Desk, and ITSM Certification for service providers.

She also hinted at announcements about a strategic relationship with SAP, working together to create the standard links. "We are extending HP OpenView to the process layer," she said. She also highlighted the acquisition of Persist in the information lifecycle management arena.

Denzel discussed some of the virtualization layer. Denzel explained, "If you're going to affect massive change over 1000 machines, you've got to virtualize it. You can't be bound by the hardware physical limitations." According to Denzel, virtualization masks over the complexity and physical limitations.

"We've done a lot of work in this area. We have made great strides in storage, server, network virtualization and virtual software. We think the ultimate virtualization is software that helps make trade-offs to meet supply and demand, as fast as you can without human intervention. Your efficiency can go from 20% to 70% when your utility data center is virtualized," she added.

As for the enhancements in OpenCall, Denzel boasted that HP has deep and rich expertise in this area. She claimed that HP OpenCall speeds the time for service providers to delivery new services, while masking the complexity.

"We are innovating on top of standard infrastructure, enabling the industry to cost-effectively introduce voice services, and driving the telecom industry to flexible, industry standards. We are using a cast of partners to help us deliver solutions to network and service providers," she noted.

Summarizing her presentation, Denzel said, "We are investing $2.5 billion annually in R&D for the adaptive enterprise, with half of it in software, a key enabler of the adaptive enterprise.

HP's focus is in adaptive management, virtualization and HP Opencall for compelling telco services, and we are looking forward to sharing the details with each of you throughout the week," she concluded.