HP launches new class of server for social, mobile, cloud and big data

HP today unveiled the world’s first commercially available HP Moonshot system at an event in Dubai. The new system delivers compelling new infrastructure economics by using up to 89 percent less energy, 80 percent less space and costing less than 77 percent compared to traditional servers.(1) Moonshot was launched at the “Road to Innovation 2013”event, held at Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
Today’s mega data centers are nearing a breaking point wherefurther growth is restricted due tothe current economics of traditional infrastructure. HP Moonshot servers are a first steporganizations can taketo address these constraints. “With nearly 10 billion devices connected to the internet globally, and predictions for exponential growth in the Middle East, we’ve reached a point where the space, power and cost demands of traditional technology are no longer sustainable,” said Karam Jabi, Industry Standard Server Business Unit Manager, HP Middle East, HP Middle East. “HP Moonshot marks the beginning of a new style of IT that will change the infrastructure economics and lay the foundation for the growth and development of the Middle East.
HP innovation delivers less energy use, less space, less cost. HP has been the leader in defining next-generation computing platforms for decades.
More than 20 years ago, HP introduced the first successfulcommercial UNIX server, the HP9000 Series 840,as well as the first x86 server, the HP System Pro. More than a decade later, HP was granted one of the first patents for blade server architectures. The company hasremained the x86 server market leader for the last 16 years.(2)
HP hascontinued to push the boundaries of technology and innovationby ushering in a paradigm shift that paved the way for the first “software defined” server thatenables enterprises to optimize their serversbased on specific workload needs. Built from HP’s industry-leading server intellectual property (IP) and 10 years of extensive research from HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, HP Moonshot delivers a significant improvementin energy, space, cost and simplicity.
Designed for the data center, built for the planet: The newHP Moonshot system is the second-generation server from HP’sProject Moonshot. This new class of server is engineered to address the IT challengescreated by social, cloud, mobile and big data.HP Moonshot servers are built from chips more commonly found in smartphones and tablets, which allow the servers to deliver reduced energy use and a high-density footprint, all at a significantly lower cost. The HP Moonshot platform consists of the HP Moonshot 1500 system and application-optimized HP ProLiant Moonshot servers. These servers will offer processors from multiple HP partners, each targeting a specific workload.
With supportfor up to1,800 servers per rack,HP Moonshot servers occupy one-eighth of the space required by traditional servers. This offers a compelling solution to the problem of physical data center space.(3)Each chassisshares traditional components includingthe fabric,HP Integrated Lights Out (iLo) management, power supply and cooling fans. These shared components reduce complexity as well as add to the reduction in energy use and space. The first HP ProLiant Moonshot serveris available with the Intel® Atom S1200 processor and supports web-hosting workloads. HPMoonshot 1500, a 4.3u server enclosure,is fully equipped with45 Intel-based cartridges, one network switch and supporting components.
“We recognized several years ago the need for a new breed of high-density, energy-efficient servers and other datacenter equipment.” said Alexei Navolokin, Regional Market Development Director for the Middle East. “The Intel® Atom™ processor S1200 product family delivers the world’s first low-power, 64-bit server-class system-on-chip (SoC) for high-density microservers. The energy-sipping, industrial-strength microprocessor features essential capabilities to achieve server-class reliability, manageability and cost effectiveness. The data center continues to evolve into unique segments and both Intel and HP continue to be leaders in these transitions and today’s launch marks a new milestone in energy efficiency.” (3)
A growing ecosystem of industry leading technology partners: HP also announced a comprehensive roadmap of workload-optimized HP ProLiant Moonshot servers incorporating processors from a broad ecosystem of HP partners including AMD, Applied Micro, Calxeda, Intel and Texas Instruments Incorporated. Scheduled to be released in the second half of 2013, the new HP ProLiant Moonshot servers will support emerging web, cloud and massive scale environments, as well as analytics and telecommunications. Future servers will be delivered for big data, high-performance computing, gaming, financial services, genomics, facial recognition, video analysis and other applications. HP Information Technology has implemented HP Moonshot servers to support the hp.com environment, which receives approximately three million visits per day.