HP Offers Packaged Approach to BIO, Compliance

HP today launched a trio of new products and service packages today geared for enterprises and small- to mid-sized businesses (SMB) looking for an all-encompassing suite that will optimize their datacenters, improve the way they store, access and retrieve corporate data — and keep the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) off their backs.

In order to meet new and ever-changing regulatory standards like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA for the health care community, CIOs are investing millions to organize their data and their datacenters. Better that, they say, than risk forking over millions in attorney fees and fines if they’re unable to produce data requested during an investigation or as part of a civil or criminal trial.

“There has been a lot of news recently about CEOs and board members deleting information related to ongoing investigations or companies unable to come up with data requested by regulatory agencies,” Tom Rose, product marketing manager for HP’s information management software group, told InternetNews.com. “A lot of companies are just praying it doesn’t happen to them. But it’s been proven in recent months that this is not a good strategy.”

A better idea, according to HP, is to invest $71,000 to buy an HP Integrated Archive Platform.

The platform runs on its ProLiant servers, uses grid storage and server technology and includes a suite of distributed content, policy management and search software applications that scale to accommodate as many e-mails, digital files and documents as a company can create.

“It puts all the information in there in one place and has features that speak directly to the type of data retention and recovery requirements companies of all sizes must address,” Rose said. “A high-end, enterprise customer can easily bring this in-house, but SMBs can get sued just as easily. This works for them, as well.”

The launch comes after HP declared in April its plans to address such issues in the datacenter, expanding on the formal launch of its new enterprise data warehouse platform Neoview.

HP today also announced the availability of its Demand and Portfolio Management Solution. It’s called a “solution” because it incorporates both project and portfolio management software with consulting and integration services. The goal is to help CIOs manage multiple IT projects and inventory their entire technology ecosystem.

“Increasingly, we see customers challenged with quantifying the number of IT projects they have going at once and getting the optimization of all their resources at the same time,” said Josh Buckley, HP’s worldwide service management solution manager. “Along with the daily challenges of meeting regulatory and compliance standards, customers also need to mitigate the risk of not meeting business expectations.”

Buckley said pricing for the Demand and Portfolio Management product is based on the size, scope and specific needs of individual customers.

Finally, HP today unveiled a little something for datacenter managers trying to reduce energy consumption, virtualize their servers or simply move and restore the computing capacity of their datacenters.

The company’s Data Center Transformation service delivers datacenter automation services, including the initial provisioning of servers, networks and storage devices, as well as remote monitoring of real-time power and cooling assessments. The service also includes data migration, site planning and deployment services.