HP Services To Move Customers To Virtual Client Infrastructures
Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday introduced a new client infrastructure service portfolio aimed at helping customers move away from traditional desktop PC infrastructures and embrace new types of user devices, said Alan Wilson, vice president for infrastructure consulting.
Those services will at the same time help customers simplify their infrastructure management and increasing security, Wilson said.
HP's new client infrastructure services come at a time when companies are looking at refreshing their desktops and laptops to take advantage of new hardware or the latest Windows 7 operating system, Wilson said.
At the same time, their users are bringing a variety of client devices ranging from smart phones to tablet PCs like the iPad, and are concerned about security and data compliance, he said. "The more the end user access to data can be controlled, the better the security of that data," he said.
The new HP Client Infrastructure Services portfolio includes three primary types of services to help customers virtualize their client environments, Wilson said.
The first, HP Client Strategy Services, brings in HP's services professionals to help the customer understand the business value and ROI of migrating to new virtualized infrastructures.
The second, HP Client Migration Services, helps customers migrate to new virtualized client infrastructures while ensuring they continue to have access to their existing applications.
The third, HP Client Virtualization Services, connects the new virtualized environment to with customers' user device, storage, and server technologies with the help of VMware, Citrix, and/or Microsoft, Wilson said.
All these services are done with long-term planning in mind, said Tom Norton, director of Microsoft client infrastructure consulting at HP.
"You don't want to do a one-time upgrade," Norton said. "All our customers tell us that. You want this to be part of an overall strategy."
Wilson said the new services can be purchased individually or as part of a complete service. The services will be available initially on a direct basis from HP, but as they mature, HP will roll them out through its channel partners with tools and facilities on the back end to help them automate the process, he said.