The evolution of HP under CEO Mark Hurd is an
ongoing project that includes repositioning core products into the best
venues to market and selling them.
The systems vendor said today it created a new business unit to propel its management software portfolio for servers and storage machines. The ESS Software
unit, which is part of HP’s Enterprise Storage and Server (ESS) group, will merge assets from several HP storage and server software portfolios.
ESS Software will include: HP Systems Insight Manager, the company’s core
server and storage management software; HP Storage Essentials, which is based on
software from the company’s acquisition of AppIQ; HP Virtual Server
Environment, which boosts server resource utilization; and HP ProLiant
Essentials, a management suite for HP ProLiant servers.
Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager of the HP
StorageWorks division since 2003, will lead the unit as senior vice
president and general manager. The executive will also continue to lead HP
StorageWorks until a successor is named in the next few weeks.
Schultz said the formation of a focused storage and server software unit
will help HP better differentiate its
servers and storage software and better integrate that software with HP’s
business technology optimization software.
Core to this effort, Schultz said, is HP’s Systems Insight Manager, which covers
both server and storage, providing a unified management blanket that HP will
use throughout the ESS Software unit as moves to automate across disparate
platforms.
“We want to automate across the [server and storage] platforms so customers
can better efficiency and control of their total environment and be more
dynamic in how they move things around,” Schultz told
internetnews.com.
“The software stack we created for this ESS Software business is vital to
making that happen. It became clear that we needed to integrate our
planning, development, marketing and go-to-market efforts all in one place.”
The move is par for the course at HP.
Since Mark Hurd took over the CEO role from Carly Forina roughly two years ago, he has ushered in several changes and reorganizations to streamline the company’s sprawling operations.
One of his focuses has been a keen emphasis on pumping up the company’s
software offerings.
HP took a big step in that direction by acquiring Mercury Interactive last year for $4.5 billion.
A month ago, HP unveiled
its revamped software division, which includes HP’s OpenView management and
Mercury’s application management and delivery and IT governance software, at
its annual HP Software Universe conference in Vienna, Austria.
Just last week, HP created a Business Information Optimization unit within
its HP Software organization to improve the way the company markets and
sells business intelligence and information management software to
enterprise customers.