Hewlett-Packard Tuesday announced a pay-per-use utility pricing model that uses automated metering technology to measure the percent of each CPU actually used on an HP Superdome server.
With this pricing model, customers will be charged for actual server usage on a monthly basis.
According to HP, this direct link between IT costs and business demand is ideal for enterprises with seasonal activity or unexpected new business opportunities, as it enables them to have computing capacity available while paying for IT power on an as-needed basis. This means that over the long haul, customers can have additional processors instantly available during periods of high activity, without worrying about them laying dormant during slower times.
Irv Rothman, president and chief executive officer for HP Financial Services, notes “This gives customers the financial flexibility they need to respond promptly and effectively to cyclical changes in demand and directly align IT costs with the revenue the technology helps to generate. Today’s announcement is more proof of HP’s commitment to offer customers flexible capacity and cost structures to minimize risks today — and maximize business agility for tomorrow’s rapidly changing needs.”
The metering technology reads the actual usage for each CPU and charges the enterprise for the processing power used. CPU utilization data is automatically collected, encrypted, and then securely transmitted to HP’s billing engine.
The equipment devices and automated metering technology physically reside at the customer site.
The pay-per-use model is being offered through HP Financial Services as part of HP’s suite of On Demand solutions. The On Demand solutions provide customers reserve capacity, instant availability, and payments based on actual metered usage.
HP’s pay-per-use offering is currently available in North America and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is expected to be available in the Asia-Pacific region shortly.
HP has offered on-demand, usage-based active CPU metering and pricing since the Superdome server launched in September 2000. It claims to be the only technology company offering pay-per-use capacity metering for UNIX servers.