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Follow UsBANGALORE, INDIA: HP has announced the expansion of its HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio with a new carrier-grade version optimized for the needs of telecom service providers and network equipment suppliers.
The HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade Platform provides a cost-effective and flexible foundation for wireless and wired infrastructure – delivering the high levels of reliability and performance required by the telecom industry.
HP led the x86 Blade Server market in Asia/Pacific (inc. Japan) in Q3 2007 with 38.7 percent unit shipment share. In the third quarter of 2007, HP's x86 Blade Server revenues grew 95.2 percent year-on-year in Q3 2007 in Asia/Pacific (inc. Japan), according to IDC's Asia/Pacific Quarterly Enterprise Server Tracker, Q3 2007, November 2007.
Carrier Grade System
A Carrier Grade server is a NEBS (Network Equipment Building System) certified server specifically for telecom service providers.
NEBS certified equipment provides a high level of reliability in the extremely dense electrical environment of a telecom service provider’s data center. Some of the issues addressed by Carrier Grade Servers are:
1. To try and protect telecommunications equipment from service outages caused by incompatible equipment 2. Prevent interference to licensed radio transmitters and other close proximity telecommunications equipment
3. Minimize the risk of fires to telecommunications equipment
4. Ensure equipment operation under the range of temperature, humidity, vibration, and airborne contamination present in telecommunications locations
The HP Advantage
“As telecom and enterprise environments converge, many service providers see real advantages in a single server family that can support both their telephony and IT needs,” said Lee Doyle, Group Vice President, Network Infrastructure and Security Products, IDC. “HP has a strong footprint in both worlds, and its dual expertise is reflected in the new HP BladeSystem carrier-grade platform.”
Service providers will be able to deploy the carrier-grade BladeSystem platform in the IP-based (Internet Protocol) next-generation networks they are building. Examples include: Intelligent Network (IN) elements, Internet Multi-Media Subsystem (IMS), service delivery platforms, security systems, media servers, digital television (IPTV) platforms, and messaging (SMS, or texting).
At the same time, they can deploy the enterprise-class version across a range of applications in IT data centers and in operations and business support systems (OSS and BSS), such as: network management and service assurance, billing, revenue assurance, customer care, business intelligence and fraud management.
“HP delivers and supports a broad array of telecom software, services and architectures, and it’s all built on proven HP carrier-grade hardware and a global supply chain of support,” said Kamal Dutta, Country Manager, Business Critical Systems, HP India Sales. “HP has a 30 year track record in this industry, and this new BladeSystem platform again demonstrates the value of our experience in both telecom and IT.”
The HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade Platform is expected to be available worldwide in January at the same price of equivalent commercial HP BladeSystem enclosures and blades.
Low cost, flexibility and technology leadership
The HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade Platform includes all the key advantages of the commercial version:
· To cut costs and integration time, the HP BladeSystem c7000-cg enclosure consolidates into a single chassis the telecom and enterprise infrastructure, such as cables, power supplies and fans, networking, redundancy and other components. The enclosure supports up to 16 server blades and adds useful features that save maintenance time, reduce energy costs and minimize risk by simplifying change.
· HP BladeSystem BL460c-cg server blade provides high-performance computing with reliability and energy efficiency. The 2P server blade combines dual-core Intel® Xeon® series processor performance with greater memory capacity, hot plug SAS drives, simultaneous support of multiple I/O cards, and enhanced remote management.
· HP Virtual Connect architecture simplifies connections to local-area network and storage-area network environments, enabling administrators to wire once, then add, replace and recover server resources on the fly. It further minimizes complexity by reducing the number of network cables up to 94 percent. Virtual Connect is available in Ethernet or Fibre Channel options.
Built to serve specific telecom needs
The HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade platform is designed to meet the specific requirements of carrier-grade environments:
· NEBS Level 3 rack certification – a telecom industry standard that ensures hardware platforms provide high levels of reliability in all conditions: temperature, humidity, fire, earthquake resistance (seismic rack), handling, airborne contaminants and acoustics;
· Power supply – NEBS-compliant – 36 volt to 72 volt direct current for central office application;
· Product lifecycles – extended three-year product sales, which exceed norms of 18 months for commercial IT servers.
Industry standards are important for service providers that are evolving their telephony and IT networks to be more modular, scalable and flexible. HP is an active participant in the Carrier Grade Linux forum, and the HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade Platform supports both RedHat RHEL 5.x and Debian GNU/Linux with HP Telco Extensions, an official, carrier-grade Linux for which HP provides extensive service and support offerings. HP will also support other Linux distributions on a case-by-case basis.
HP is a founding member and active participant in the OpenSAF (Service Availability Forum) Foundation. The company supports the OpenSAF specification and its embedded OpenHPI (hardware platform interface) technology. Related to this, HP has announced the availability of an OpenHPI plug-in for the HP BladeSystem Carrier-Grade servers. www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/carriergrade.