OREANDA-NEWS. At the Open Compute Summit, HP introduced HP Cloudline, a new family of compute platforms that enable service providers running hyperscale IT architectures to maximize data center efficiency and increase cloud service agility. 

HP is committed to open initiatives through collaboration with various eco-system partners. With HP Cloudline, HP is further extending its open infrastructure vision from cloud and network switches to include servers.  Open solutions accelerate innovation and provide service providers with the flexibility required for rapid growth.

“The business success of today’s service providers is directly correlated with their ability to cost-effectively acquire and operate their IT infrastructure to meet customer demand,” said, Alain Andreoli, senior vice president and general manager, HP Servers. “Built on open-design principles with extreme scalability, HP Cloudline servers help service providers reduce infrastructure cost and accelerate service delivery to improve business performance.”

The new HP Cloudline server family is a result of the HP-Foxconn joint venture.  HP Cloudline combines the compute and service leadership of HP with the high-volume benefits of an original design manufacturer (ODM) sourcing model while delivering the global scale, support, services and management that service providers require.

HP Cloudline minimizes risk with custom design capability, a global supply chain, a service provider service portfolio and a trusted brand that is associated with quality high standards and global reach. 

HP Cloudline systems are built on an open design philosophy using open components to increase adaptability and facilitate IT integration. HP Cloudline supports open management tools, such as OpenStack® technology, and leverages common industry interfaces, such as IPMI, in hardware and firmware. As a result, HP Cloudline easily integrates into a multi-vendor environment.

Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. provides Internet and mobile security products and services to 500 million monthly active PC Internet users and more than 640 million mobile users in China. This fast-growing company, established in 2005, has built its business around HP servers. Today, as it prepares to add 20,000 additional servers, Qihoo has chosen HP Cloudline systems to take its cloud environment to a new level.

“This machine can actually provide us with better management capabilities, more customization possibilities, and a much higher price-performance ratio,” said Tan Xiao Sheng, Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer, Qihoo 360. “We believe HP Cloudline is the best solution for our cloud implementation.”

Compute for Cloud Age Service Providers
To deliver cloud services and applications to the masses, service providers require the scale and flexibility to meet growing, variable demand as well as support fast and continuous software deployment.  Additionally, they need to cost-effectively acquire and operate the IT infrastructure, including servers suited to web-scale architectures.

Purpose built for cloud-scale deployments, HP Cloudline servers meet the technical requirements, economics and functional performance needs of the growing service provider market.  HP Cloudline facilitates demand-driven deployment, accelerated service delivery and cost-effective operation.

HP Cloudline servers are optimized for workloads including cloud (OpenStack and other open cloud platforms), web servers, content delivery, hosting and big data (Hadoop framework). HP Cloudline is also optimized for HP Helion.  By adding the HP Helion Development Platform, developers can rapidly build and deploy cloud-native applications with a highly-scalable infrastructure that provides industry-standard programmability, ensures data persistency and durability, and offers built-in application resiliency.

With minimalist bare-iron design, standard management interfaces, a select set of configuration choices, equipment-based warranties and service provider-optimized support, the first generation of HP Cloudline rack servers are powered by the latest Intel® Xeon® processor E5 v3 series product family. The portfolio currently includes:

  • CL7300 – A 2P server sled for memory and storage–rich compute applications.
  • CL7100 – A 2P server sled for memory and storage–rich compute applications.
  • CL2200 – A high-capacity, low-cost 2U 2P server for big data and storage-intensive cloud applications.
  • CL2100 – A multipurpose 1U 2P server for memory and storage–rich compute applications.
  • CL1100 – A low-cost 1U 2P server made to deliver efficient front-end web performance.

The new product line complements and strengthens the industry-leading HP ProLiant server portfolio, including HP Moonshot. 

HP Cloudline servers can be supported with HP Technology Services including warranty and post-warranty support; technical and operational services; security services; and education/training.  Additionally, HP Flexible Capacity’s “pay-as-you-grow” model offers immediate access to storage, server and networking resources located on-site so service providers can scale quickly and pay only for the capacity used.  HP Financial Services also are available to help service providers grow within budget through a wide range of investment and IT asset management solutions.1

Pricing and availability
HP Cloudline rack servers are available only at rack-scale with the exact quantity dependent on the customer. The CL100, CL2100 and CL 2200 will be available for direct order on March 30, 2015. For details on ordering the CL7100 and CL7300, service providers should contact their HP account manager.