HP has announced several updates to its converged server range, including the all-new HP Helion CloudSystem 200-HC, which was described by one of the company’s executives as a ‘data center in a box’.

The ConvergedSystem 700 now includes more customization options and supports third-party software tools, while the new version of HP OneView infrastructure management platform introduces predictive analytics for easier hardware maintenance.

All of these products were presented at the HP Discover conference in Barcelona. However, they were somewhat eclipsed by the announcements of Superdome X – HP’s first mission-critical platform based on x86 architecture, and 3PAR StoreServ 7440c – a hybrid storage appliance that supports block, file and object storage.

Small but mighty
CS 200-HC combines HP ProLiant and HP StoreVirtual technologies. It’s an instant server and shared storage cluster, serving both applications and data services within a compact 2U footprint. The converged platform is powered by HP Helion - the company’s take on the OpenStack.

A single CS 200-HC ‘building block’ includes four trays of pre-configured compute, storage and networking components alongside the VMware vSphere software.

Two models will be available: HP CS 240-HC will include 64 CPU cores at 2.0 GHz each, 512 GB of RAM and 24 SFF hard drives for almost 30TB of storage.

HP CS 242-HC will ship with 80 CPU cores at 2.8 GHz each, 1TB of RAM, 16 SAS SFF drives and 8 SSDs for more than 3TB of flash.

HP says the new systems enable complete deployment of a virtualized environment in under 15 minutes. They scale easily, but are aimed primarily at midsize businesses and remote offices, rather than larger infrastructure projects.

CS 200-HC nodes can be managed through HP OneView - the latest version launched at HP discover has introduced more automation tools and built-in predictive analytics capability, helping customers nip any issues in the bud.

OneView is compatible with older HP server systems, going as far back as the sixth generation, released in 2011. And thanks to the transparent nature of the converged platform, it can troubleshoot a network issue in just four steps.

The latest version of HP OneView will be available to select US customers in January 2015 with worldwide availability in March 2015. HP CloudSystem 200-HC will be available in January 2015.

Bill Veghte, executive vice president of HP’s Enterprise Group, told the audience in Barcelona that 2014 was a transformative year for the company’s server business - it was the number one server vendor across all regional markets, shipping four times more server blades than Cisco.