Connecting blade servers to your network has always involved some inescapable tradeoffs: too many cables or too many LAN and SAN switches to manage. HP’s innovative Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology dramatically reduces cabling without adding switch-management complexity. It lets you wire everything just once — then add, replace or recover servers in minutes. And it gives you the flexibility to fine-tune network bandwidth at the server edge and adapt to changing virtual server workloads
on-the-fly.

HP can help you make the most of these unique Virtual Connect Flex-10 capabilities to speed and simplify blade server virtualization across your network.

We deliver a wide array of expert planning, deployment, management and support services tailored expressly for Flex-10 solutions. We complement your in-house expertise with the precise assistance your staff needs to run your virtualized bladed infrastructure at peak performance — helping you optimize network-wide availability, meet your service-level commitments and realize faster investment returns.

HP’s blade virtualization and interconnect specialists can help you better understand your existing system and network infrastructure. And they can recommend how to most effectively leverage Flex-10 and other advanced virtualization technologies now and for the future.

HP Virtualization Assessment Services packages give you a detailed view of your current environment. Provide capacity planning assistance for making more efficient use of your IT assets. And show you how to minimize virtualization implementation risks. Similarly, our Thermal Assessment Service for Blades offers a cost-effective analysis of space, power and cooling requirements for infrastructures with high-density blade deployments.

Deploying environments can be a frustrating task. You need to configure Spanning Tree Protocol, VLANs, trunking, uplinks and port aggregation, user access, port security and more. All this can eat up considerable time even for a seasoned administrator. And there’s the ever-looming possibility of configuration errors that take additional hours to troubleshoot and resolve.

HP can help you avoid time-intensive trial-and-error implementation. With HP Enhanced Network Installation and Startup Service for HP BladeSystem (PDF), an experienced network professional configures and tests your Virtual Connect Flex-10 modules and BladeSystem Ethernet switches. This service helps you deploy blade-based networks rapidly and securely. It helps ensure proper implementation of network protocols. And it gives your people the know-how to continuously improve network performance, scalability and reliability.

E-mail…fax...instant messaging…voicemail…mobile phones…mobile data…VoIP...audio conferencing…video conferencing…rich presence.

Across your enterprise, communication types, technologies and devices are proliferating — often in isolation from each other and from critical business operations. The all-too-common result: a communications environment that hampers collaboration, slows decision-making, diverts valuable IT resources and drives up operations costs.

Unified Communications services from HP can help you respond to these tough challenges by integrating Virtual Connect Flex-10 solutions with your existing data, voice and video systems and linking those systems to key business processes.

With the multiple components involved in a virtualized blade-based network — and the often-complex interdependencies among them — implementing changes such as upgrades and patches can pose complex challenges. There are the BIOS, drivers and firmware within each blade server. The management software. The firmware within each blade enclosure and each network and SAN switch. All multiplied by the number of blade enclosures you’re dealing with.

HP’s experienced consultants can work with you to design, implement and continuously improve change and configuration management processes to reduce support costs and decrease planned and unplanned downtime.

With HP Proactive BladeSystem Care Pack service, for example, you can establish a personalized, consultative relationship with an HP account support manager who works with your staff to understand your goals and objectives, assess your current operational capabilities and develop a custom-tailored support plan. Coverage spans your HP bladed network infrastructure. Plus, you can obtain specialized technical consulting in focal areas like virtualization, power and cooling, security and ITIL best practices.

Your blade-specific support options for Flex-10 and other virtualized environments also include:

• HP Proactive 24 Services, which offer a mix of proactive problem prevention, including customized planning and consulting support, and round-the-clock issue resolution.
• Support Plus 24, providing prompt, round-the-clock reactive support spanning BladeSystem enclosure hardware and software — including HP Insight Control management software support and updates.

HP’s services portfolio is designed to address the full spectrum of server, software, storage and network needs across your virtualized bladed environment. From specialized Flex-10 consulting to ongoing maintenance and support, our services can help you build and optimize a highly manageable, cost-efficient infrastructure.