SILICON VALLEY, Calif., and HOPKINTON, Mass., June 29, 1998 -- Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that it - with Cisco Systems, Inc., EMC Corporation and Oracle. Corporation - will offer the industry's first comprehensive set of high-availability (HA) solutions and services.
These solutions and services, which include Mission-Critical Server Suite (MCSS) configurations, complete with server, network, storage and database, and each with a 99.95 percent uptime guarantee, are designed to give customers increased levels of availability in mission-critical environments.
"Our IT infrastructure is in line with HP's high-availability roadmap," said Bruce Hampton, director of enterprise system services, Damark International, Inc. "We have been building many of the components ourselves and are very pleased HP is headed in the same direction. HP's goal of 99.999 percent uptime will mean increased productivity and greater customer service to our business. This kind of vendor integration, through the different levels of the architecture, requires tremendous coordination and alignment."
"Today's announcements clearly distinguish HP, with its partners, as the driver in the HA market," said Janice Chaffin, general manager of HP's High Performance Systems Division. "These products and services bring customers significantly closer to achieving 99.999 percent availability in their mission-critical environments. HP plans to continue leading the market by setting the standard for mission-critical solutions."
Ensuring Network Availability
HP and Cisco have teamed together to provide the industry's first network guarantee of 99.95 percent uptime with the Server-to-Switch Foundation Configuration as part of the HP MCSS platform. This new technology adds a highly available configuration of Cisco's high performance, resilient Catalyst 5505 switch to HP's MCSS platform. The configuration features HP's highest level of proactive network support - HP Critical Systems Support with Network Availability Services. (See today's companion release titled "HP and Cisco Introduce Industry's First Network Uptime Guarantee.")Ensuring System and Data Availability
HP and EMC, moving forward to provide even higher levels of availability, announced EMC's inclusion in HP's 5nines:5minutes HA program, and introduced HP's MetroCluster for EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) software.(See today's companion release published on HP's site titled "HP and EMC Team Up to Help Customers Move Toward Unprecedented Levels of Availability.")MetroCluster integrates EMC's SRDF software, and HP MC/ServiceGuard via MetroCluster for EMC SRDF, providing superior data security through automated disaster-recovery and increased distance between fail-over sites - up to 40 kilometers.
Uptime Guarantees for the Database
On June 3, Oracle announced it will offer a 99.95 percent uptime guarantee on its database and will collaborate with HP to introduce a solution based on HP's MCSS using the Oracle Parallel Server - providing a platform guarantee through the database.To implement and manage this level of guarantee, HP and Oracle also said they will offer an industry-first, support-service integration that will provide higher availability through integrated HP and Oracle proactive services and problem resolution. Joint account management is expected to give customers an improved vendor management experience.(See HP's June 3 companion release on HP's web site titled "HP and Oracle Deliver Seamless Multivendor Solutions for the New Electronic World.")
Availability
HP Mission-Critical Server Suites are available directly from HP account representatives or certified HP resellers. HP and Oracle integrated services are scheduled to be available in the Fall. Implementation services are available from HP Consulting. Pricing varies depending on configuration.About 5nines:5minutes
HP's 5nines:5minutes HA vision defines how HP will deliver 99.999 percent expected uptime in certain pre-defined, pre-tested customer environments. Supported by its partners, HP will maximize uptime - as seen by the end user - to deliver true end-to-end availability.About EMC
EMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Hopkinton, Mass., is the world's leading supplier of intelligent enterprise storage and retrieval technology, designing systems for mainframe, open systems and midrange environments. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a member of the S&P 500 Index.About Oracle
Oracle Corporation is the world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest company. With annual revenues of 7.1 billion, the company offers its database, application server, tools and application products along with related consulting, education and support services, in more than 140 countries around the world. Oracle works with leading technology, solutions and services companies through its worldwide Alliance Program to deliver integrated customer solutions for networking computing.About HP
HP is the official information-technology hardware and maintenance supplier to the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament. Selected for its technology and skills to support and manage mission-critical applications, HP will help create an information-management infrastructure for handling game-scoring; media centers; personnel accreditation; hotel information; and various ticketing, stadium, warehouse and back-office operations.Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. It is the second-largest computer supplier in the world, with computer-related revenue in excess of $35.4 billion in its 1997 fiscal year.
HP has 125,300 employees and had revenue of $42.9 billion in its 1997 fiscal year.
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.For more information visit Cisco PR Contacts
Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, and LightStream are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California.
