HP Achieves Breakthrough: Core Of Its Six Internal Data Centers Now "Cisco Free"

PALO ALTO, Calif.(BUSINESS WIRE) HP today announced that all six of its internal next-generation data centers are now running company operations worldwide on HP Networking solutions. In less than six months, HP IT engineers have replaced all of the non-HP core wide-area-network (WAN) routers and switches connecting the six data centers to each other and the internet. They also installed 75 HP A-series routers and switches and upgraded and replaced 30 circuits, with no data center downtime.

"This past April we said we'd be Cisco-free for core WAN routing and switching in our data centers, and we are. We did it ahead of schedule and are seeing performance even better than we expected," said Ken Gray, vice president, Infrastructure, Global Information Technology, HP. "Our engineers have done a great job proving it's possible to run a network for a company the size and scale of HP on our own products, and we did the migration without taking a data center offline."

HP's data centers are located in Houston, Austin and Atlanta - two in each city. More than 85 worldwide internal data centers of 5,000 square feet or more, plus hundreds of smaller server locations, were consolidated into the six sites. The HP IT teams also transformed the network architecture based on open standards. This open architecture helped facilitate the optimization of the network using HP Networking, including HP TippingPoint products, across the internal data center landscape.

Recently installed A-Series products include 20 A8812 routers, six A6616 routers, 18 A6604 routers, 16 A12508 switches and 12 modular A9505 switches. The equipment supports more than 260 Gbs of WAN data traffic, including 120 Gbs of internet capacity - four times the bandwidth of what was previously installed - and it runs high-volume operations such as HP Internet Services and online transactions through the company's website, www.hp.com.

The next step in the migration plan is the installation of HP products on the fringes of the network connecting company facilities worldwide. "When we talk to customers around the world, they're looking for a full networking portfolio provider with open architecture enabling an alternative to the proprietary protocols they've been locked into for decades," said Randy Mott, executive vice president and chief information officer, HP. "We knew from the first evaluations of the 3Com technology that it would be an exceptional value for HP and HP IT."The IT executives responsible for the design and implementation of the internal network will be holding breakout sessions for customers at the HP IT Forum in Atlanta, Nov. 18-19. Details on the event and registration information are available at www.hp.com/go/hpitforumATL. More information about HP networking solutions is available at www.hp.com/go/networking.