5 Big HP Announcements You Would've Seen At Reinvent 2020

HP this week debuted new offerings across printers, PC security and workstations even with the postponing of the Reinvent partner conference.

HP Inc. this week rolled out an array of new offerings across key focus areas for the channel including small-business printers, advanced PC security and a workstation solution targeting remote workers.

The launches came even though HP was forced to postpone its annual partner conference, Reinvent, which had been scheduled to take place this week in Anaheim, Calif. HP postponed Reinvent 2020 until the early fall in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

[Related: HP CEO Lores On Boosting PC Supply And 3-D Printing Medical Parts For The Coronavirus Response]

What follows are five big HP announcements you would've seen this week at HP Reinvent 2020.

HP Neverstop Printer

HP is looking to take the hassle and high costs out of printing for small businesses with its debut of a brand-new printer series, the HP Neverstop. The black-and-white printer, available in both single-function and multi-function models, comes with enough toner to print 5,000 pages—which is 7X more than competitive laser products, according to HP.

But the even bigger differentiator is that once the printer is out of toner, users can easily refill the cartridge by purchasing a toner reload kit. Users plunge the device down to reload the toner cartridge, and the process of refilling the Neverstop takes just 15 seconds, HP said.

HP has also reduced the cost of printing with its new system, with the Neverstop offering a cost of less than 1 cent per page, according to HP.

Print speeds are the same for both models--up to 21 pages per minute. Both models offer wireless printing, as well.

The single-function model in the new series is the HP Neverstop Laser 1000, which has a starting price of $279. The multifunction model is the HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1200, which starts at $329. A toner reload kit will cost $16.

HP’s Neverstop printers are available now.

HP Pro Security Edition

Keeping with the small-business theme, HP this week introduced its new HP Pro Security Edition that is designed for use by small businesses. The offering combines advanced application isolation with endpoint protection that leverages deep-learning technologies, HP said.

The HP Pro Security Edition includes an enhanced version of the Sure Click malware protection solution--dubbed Sure Click Pro--offering improved isolation protection technologies covering files, browsers and applications. HP Pro Security also includes Sure Sense Pro, which expands on the Sure Sense deep-learning malware protection introduced last year, used for blocking previously unknown malware.

HP Pro Security Edition is "designed to combat the problem [small businesses] have with limited resources, by making it very simple to deploy and manage. Everything is brought together in this unified console," said Ian Pratt, global head of security for commercial systems at HP, in a briefing with reporters.

Partners or customers will be able to order new HP PCs with the HP Pro Security Edition pre-installed at the factory. HP Pro Security Edition will be available on 2020 HP notebook and desktop platforms across 400 to 1000 series machines, including both Intel- and AMD-based devices, though there will be certain minimum hardware requirements, HP said.

HP Pro Security Edition is expected to be available on select new HP PCs in the summer.

HP Proactive Security

HP also unveiled a new managed security service for medium-sized businesses, HP Proactive Security, which will be an additional solution that can be sold by partners.

The service will include monitoring and management by HP cybersecurity personnel, as well as advanced solutions including Sure Click Pro and Sure Sense Pro.

HP Proactive Security also adds analytics and insights gleaned from the HP TechPulse management agent running in the cloud, Pratt said. The solution will be available on non-HP and older HP devices, in addition to its availability on 2020 HP devices.

"These kinds of organizations really want to know what's happening within their estate of devices. And this technology will typically be cross-deployed across all of their devices, regardless of vendor," Pratt said. "With TechPulse, we're able to see and visualize these threats as they occur--and provide these dashboards and reports [to the CISO], so we can show them what we've been able to stop in their environment."

HP Proactive Security is expected to be available to partners and customers in April.

HP Sure Click Enterprise

A version of Sure Click that's tailored to larger businesses and government agencies--HP Sure Click Enterprise--will also be available for partners to sell and will be offered for both HP and non-HP platforms, the company announced this week.

Sure Click Enterprise "provides the ability to do sophisticated configuration of the product [and] deployments at scale on large numbers of machines," Pratt said.

The solution will also let partners and customers "collect very detailed threat intelligence and reporting about exactly what's happening in the environment," he said.

HP is planning to make Sure Click Enterprise available in May. The solution supports all Windows 10 and Windows 8 devices, the company said.

HP ZCentral

Lastly, HP announced this week that its ZCentral remote workstation solution is now available, following the initial announcement of the solution in November. ZCentral allows users to get workstation-level compute performance--for applications such as 4K video or 3-D graphics--on most devices.

The solution consists of a centralized rack of workstations on-premises that users securely connect to via HP's ZCentral Connect software. HP's ZCentral Remote Boost software, meanwhile, ensures that users get the sort of high-end performance one would expect from a workstation.

With the solution, HP equips the workforce "with the world’s only single-source remote workstation solution, accelerating high-performance, complex workflows from any location," said Jim Nottingham, general manager and global head of workstations at HP, in the news release announcement in November.