comparing ibm puresystems and hp converged systems · comparing ibm puresystems and hp converged...

Copyright © 2012 Harvard Research Group, Inc.

HRG Assessment: Comparing IBM PureSystems and HP Converged Systems

Today customers and employees have increasingly more bi-directional interactions with companies than at any

previous time and all of these transactions have to be served up and supported by Information Technology.

Business applications and services have to be developed and assimilated into the business quicker, faster, and

without room for mistakes.

CXOs and IT professionals are struggling to reconcile the increased complexity of business environments with an

increase in both the complexity and cost of operations. The available IT budget is increasingly consumed not by

hardware costs but by management, administration, and other indirect non-technology costs.

The current business environment is dynamic, highly competitive, increasingly fast paced, and global. Consumers

of Information Technology products and services have higher expectations than ever before, placing increasing

demands on business IT capabilities which are measured on the ability to quickly deliver new and improved

services. Large-scale projects cost millions, take months to plan and execute with no guarantee of success. Time,

budget, skilled resources, organizational experience and expertise are critical constraints. Customers are

increasingly turning to Integrated Systems to help tackle these challenges.

On April 11, 2012 IBM introduced a family of Expert Integrated Systems called IBM PureSystems. This is a

unique solution that combines IBM’s significant software, hardware, networking, security, and management

experience, expertise, and capabilities into a single easy to order and implement solution. IBM PureSystems are

architected and designed to help customers keep pace with unscheduled and unanticipated increases in demand by

simplifying the selection, purchase, installation, configuration, and implementation of IT solutions for business.

IBM PureSystems customers should expect to benefit from improved ROI and faster time to revenue.

IBM and HP each claim their particular solution uniquely meets today’s challenges. However, there are important

differences between the two solutions and only one clear winner.

How will business and IT professionals keep pace?

Is IBM PureSystems or HP Converged Systems the right solution the meet these challenges?

In this paper, we provide an overview of IBM PureSystems and HP Converged Systems and examine some of the

major differences between these solutions.

This document was developed with IBM funding. Although the document may utilize publicly available material from various vendors, including IBM, it does not necessarily reflect the positions of such vendors on the issues addressed in this document.

Harvard Research Group, Inc.


IBM PureSystems

IBM PureSystems are assembled, integrated, and configured before they are shipped to the customer. This

integration includes servers, storage, networking, management, security, operating systems, and workload specific

infrastructure patterns.

IBM PureSystems let customers stay focused on business and on serving customers. Computers, networks, storage,

and software are tools to be used to facilitate the business by creating efficiencies, expediting, and accelerating

sensible business growth, return on assets and cash flow. Anything that makes the selection, purchase, installation

and configuration of IT platforms simpler, faster, and more trouble free is good for business.

IBM PureSystems have at their core the following 3 customer focused design precepts:

Built-in expertise defined as “Capturing and automating what experts do – from the infrastructure to the

application – to make IT easy to deploy and manage.”

Integration by design defined as “Deeply integrating and tuning hardware and software in a ready-to-go,

workload-optimized system.”

Simplified experience defined as “Making every part of the IT lifecycle easier with integrated

management of the entire system and a broad open ecosystem of optimized solutions”

IBM PureSystems are fully integrated by design and tuned by IBM labs and factories. IBM PureSystems are

assembled, integrated, and configured at IBM’s manufacturing and assembly facilities and delivered as a single

tightly integrated unit in a shippable rack ready for rapid installation and production level use at the customer site.

IBM PureSystems offer “scale-in” architecture by building on faster, denser components such as POWER7’s faster

and denser architecture and the latest generation Intel processors combined with integrated virtualization

management and a unique networking design.

IBM PureFlex System

The IBM PureFlex System is an expert integrated system that combines servers, storage, networking, virtualization,

security, and management enabling organizations to rapidly deploy and manage virtualized hardware resources and

workloads. These systems deliver the simplicity of an integrated solution to customers who also need to be able to

tune and control middleware and run-time environments.

IBM PureFlex System recommends workload placement based on virtual machine compatibility and resource

availability. Using built-in virtualization across servers, storage and networking, the infrastructure system enables

automated scaling of resources and workload mobility. The IBM PureFlex System is an infrastructure system with

expertise for sensing and anticipating resource needs in order to optimize the virtualized infrastructure. IBM

PureFlex System is available in Express, Standard, and Enterprise configurations.

IBM Flex System Manager

IBM Flex System Manager (FSM) is a systems management appliance that configures, monitors, and manages IBM

PureFlex System resources. IBM Flex System Manager (FSM) provides a real-time single pane of glass GUI for

managing all chassis components. The chassis maps which comprise the FSM top level GUI show front and rear

views of the IBM Flex System chassis and installed components. By mousing and hovering over a component



information on that component is displayed in a pop up window and by selecting and clicking on a component the

administrator can drill down to manage the system at a granular level providing control of resource pools in support

of workload related QOS and SLA requirements and policies. Furthermore, this graphical view of the chassis also

provides a series of management overlays which show system policies related to SLA compliance. Additionally,

FSM provides easy to understand representations of system and individual component status as an overlay on the

chassis map. FSM is used to optimize the physical and virtual resources of the IBM PureFlex System infrastructure

while simplifying and automating repetitive tasks.

IBM PureSystem Centre

Through IBM PureSystems Centre, a portal to the PureSystems partner ecosystem, IBM enables ISVs and Business

Partners to package and deliver solutions (www.ibm.com/puresystems/centre). This catalogue of software from

IBM and partners allows customers to select, download, and deploy new software functionality - tailored through

the use of deployment patterns - to deliver reduced set up and implementation time. ISVs can sell their applications

or patterns through the IBM PureSystems Centre. IBM offers warm transfer for certified 'Ready for PureSystems'

applications. IBM also promotes the creation of further ISV patterns with a development toolkit, along with a trial

of IBM PureApplication System. You can see these at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/expert/try.html

IBM PureSystems “patterns of expertise “combine operational know how, experience, and knowledge about

common infrastructure resource management (IRM), data center infrastructure management (DCIM), and other

repeatable processes, practices and workflows like provisioning. Common patterns of activity and expertise for

routine or other time-consuming tasks enable policy driven automation. Time-consuming and repetitive tasks like

provisioning, configuration, upgrades, IRM, DCIM, data protection, storage, and application management activities

all benefit from IBM PureSystems automation. IBM’s architecture for building patterns of expertise is open.

Patterns of expertise can be created for PHP, Ruby, C++, and custom applications. Open architectures are key to

driving new technology adoption. This also includes support across both x86 and POWER-processor based

operating and hypervisor environments.

The re-factoring of applications for use in a cloud environment is done via the IBM Virtual Appliance Factory

(VAF) which produces Cloud services (images), in an industry standard format. In this way traditional application

solutions can be transformed into new Cloud images (services) for rapid customer deployment using IBM

PureSystem’ s advanced unified management capabilities. These can be deployed on IBM PureApplication System

or on IBM PureFlex System. IBM’s Virtual Appliance Factory (VAF) is a collection of tools, technologies,

processes and methodologies. VAF helps developers and ISVs prepackage applications and solutions for

deployment into Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) on Intel and IBM PowerVM virtualized environments that are

supported by IBM PureSystems. VAF technologies include tools for combing operating systems, middleware, and

solution software into a delivery package or a virtual appliance.

On IBM PureFlex System, built-in systems pooling expertise enables policy-driven optimization of compute,

storage and networking resources to drive high system utilization, rapid provisioning, and efficient resource

allocation. System pools can be optimized for performance or availability as required. IBM PureFlex System also

offers storage optimization expertise through virtualization and intelligent tiering to maximize the storage

infrastructure performance and control.

Cloud Ready

IBM PureFlex System offerings with SmartCloud Entry are cloud ready right out of the box on day one. IBM

SmartCloud Entry is a fully integrated end-to-end private Cloud solution that provides usage accounting, budgeting,

and approvals/denials functions. With the SmartCloud administrative interface the cloud administrator and end

users use the same GUI only with certain functions ‘grayed out’ for end users.



IBM provides complete cloud solutions, hardware, software technologies and services for implementing private

cloud and added value on top of virtualized infrastructure – both x86 and POWER based - with IBM SmartCloud™

Entry. The product provides a comprehensive cloud software stack and enables customers to quickly deploy their

Cloud environment.

Security

The improved security measures implemented in the IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis at the heart of the IBM

PureFlex System include tighter security standards and integration. Virtualization brings with it the requirement for

improved security, as mission critical workloads are consolidated to fewer and more powerful servers. The IBM

Flex System Enterprise Chassis management is designed to leverage current and future Trusted Computing Group

(TCG) security standards.

Security at the firmware, virtual machine, component, and system management level is integrated into the IBM

PureFlex System and IBM Flex System Manager. This level of integrated security establishes a unique and secure

Trusted Computing Base (TCB) which is a central benefit of the foundation that under pins all of the new IBM

PureSystems. These enhancements to systems security provide a significantly reduced attack surface as compared

to other commercially available systems on the market today

Networking

IBM PureFlex System’s network architecture provides unified network management, optimized and simplified

network infrastructure. This architecture supports a range of adapters, switches, and key network protocols.

Network resources are virtualized and managed by workload. The networking resources in IBM PureSystems are

virtualized, automated, optimized, managed by workload, standards-based, and fully integrated into the system.

Storage

IBM PureSystems come with factory installed and integrated storage. IBM Storwize V7000 virtualizes and

manages IBM storage as well as third party storage from vendors such as EMC and NetApp. The V7000 provides

storage tiering functionality so that the data that requires the fastest access and response times is placed on SSD

while other less latency sensitive data can be placed on rotating disk. IBM test results show that with tiered storage

support available through the IBM V7000 the dynamic relocation of data can improve performance by more than a

factor of two. Management of the V7000 is integrated under the IBM Flex System Manager as are all of the factory

integrated PureSystem components. The IBM Storwize V7000 delivers significant benefit to customers in terms of

virtualization, overall system performance, and improved efficiency for both IBM and non-IBM storage.

Compute nodes

Available with either IBM POWER7® processors or Intel Xeon processors, IBM Flex System compute nodes are

optimized for efficiency, density, performance, reliability, and security. The IO capabilities of these nodes supports

up to 16 x 10 GB lanes per node. Taking advantage of the full capabilities of IBM POWER7® processors and / or

Intel Xeon processors, the IBM Flex System compute nodes are designed to deliver performance for business

critical applications. IBM Pure System offers Intel and Power7 Nodes which can be run side-by-side within the

same IBM PureFlex chassis. IBM p260 and p460 POWER7compute nodes outperform the HP BL600 series blades

and provide an alternative path for iSeries and pSeries users into a Blade environment with both AIX and IBMi

support.



HP Converged Systems

Background HP has grown for more than a decade through a series of mergers and acquisitions to its current state as an evolving

IT Solution and Services company. The resulting proliferation of products and continuing corporate integrations

which were appealing to stockholders have created a very real potential for competition amongst the various

constituencies inside HP. The ongoing shifts in the CEO’s office have done little to enhance HP’s positioning as

the stable long term strategic partner of choice for its customers and prospective customers.

The integration of HP’s past mergers and acquisitions into the Enterprise Servers and Storage (ESS) division

represents significant ongoing challenges for HP:

The ISS (Industry Standard Servers) X86 server and storage business, much of which came with HP’s

acquisition of Compaq, constitutes the hardware and system level software offerings that make up the HP

ProLiant Server and Blade business. HP is the current x86 and blade WW leader. The ISS X86 server

business focuses on Microsoft, Novell, OEM Linux, VMware, and Citrix with optional additional software

available to provide customer required functionality.

HP’s BCS (Business Critical Systems) is the legacy PA-RISC, Alpha, and SuperDome server business.

The previous generation DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Alpha based technologies including Open

VMS and Tru64 Unix has been integrated into HP-UX. The heritage Mid-Range business was focused on

MPE, Open VMS, Tru64 and HP-UX UNIX offerings. MPE was announced as EOL (end of life) at the

time of the Compaq merger in 2003. HP’s support for MPE finally came to an end in May of 2012. The

integration of Tru64 into HP-UX has taken a number of years resulting in an exposed legacy installed base.

These evolutions represent a significant and ongoing development and marketing effort and cost for HP.

The Tandem NonStop business division has been incorporated into BCS with continuing efforts to expand

the server technology with Itanium and enhanced NonStop Kernel developments. Storage Works is the combination of previous generation DEC (EVA) and HP mid-range and high end

storage (XP). The acquisitions of LeftHand Networks, 3PAR and IBRIX by the Storage Works division

have encumbered HP’s plans for ongoing EVA development. StorageWorks with its legacy EVA and XP

in conjunction with the LeftHand, 3PAR, and IBRIX lines represents a very significant challenge in terms

of developing a consistent and cohesive customer focused strategy. Network systems and software were in a separate organization, ProCurve, which was very successful in

developing solid business through partnerships made for a mixed bag based on what customers were

investing in and HP needed in order to offer a compatible solution set.

Each of the merged organizations brought with them their own unique solution stack resulting in no true

“Enterprise Holistic” integration across servers, storage, management, and networking. HP is now faced with the

challenge of convincing its Enterprise Data Center customers that they have a cohesive story to tell. This is further

exacerbated by the introduction of “Cloud” technology and mobility systems positioned as key components of HP’s

highly touted "Converged Infrastructure".



HP Converged Infrastructure

HP’s move to become a more “Enterprise” focused organization through the alignment of field sales and

development into a single organization for the Enterprise has caused ongoing personnel fall out. While HP’s X86

remains apparently strong the Itanium business continues to struggle. HP’s Converged Infrastructure strategy

which is targeted at data center and mobility centric enterprises presents ongoing competitive and market

positioning challenges.

HP’s Converged Infrastructure is achieved through a series of guidelines, templates or frameworks for integrating

servers, storage, networking, security, power, cooling and facilities into shared resource pools under a common

management platform. The four key elements of HP’s Converged Architecture are:

HP Virtual Resource Pools - HP Virtual Resource Pools establish a common modular infrastructure

through solutions that group servers, storage and I/O resources into shared pools.

HP Matrix Operating Environment - HP Matrix Operating Environment creates a common management

platform to manage and orchestrate servers, storage, network connections, and facilities resources by tying

together the software tools into a command center to facilitate deployment of new applications.

HP FlexFabric Network - HP FlexFabric Network is a common virtual I/O network for connecting

servers to a virtualized multi-protocol network.

HP Data Center Smart Grid - HP Data Center Smart Grid creates an intelligent, energy-aware

environment across IT and facilities that reduces energy use and automates data center energy management.

HP Converged Systems The HP Converged Systems are the Virtual System, the Cloud System and the AppSystems which, according to

HP, are prepackaged, integrated, tested and optimized. HP Converged Systems extend the HP Converged

Infrastructure by integrating hardware, software and services.

HP VirtualSystem HP VirtualSystem facilitates the implementation of virtualized application solutions. It is

delivered as a virtualized system that is pre-integrated with server, storage, networking, management, solution

support, and hypervisor resources that include Microsoft®, Citrix, and VMware.

VirtualSystems are modular and are available for small, midsize, or large deployments of up to 6,000 virtual

machines per solution. These systems are based on a common architecture, common management and common

security model.

HP CloudSystem integrates servers, storage, networking, solution support, security, and management. The HP

CloudSystem software stack includes Matrix Operating Environment and Cloud Service Automation for the

provisioning, customization, and management of infrastructure services. Available CloudSystem extensions

include: Cloud Maps, HP storage, HP TippingPoint and ArcSight security, HP networking, Mission-critical

computing, and a portfolio of HP software.

HP AppSystems are pre-integrated solutions made up of hardware and software for a single application or suite of

applications. AppSystems solutions include real-time analytics, data warehousing, and collaboration software from

Microsoft, SAP, Vertica, and more. According to HP AppSystems are open standards based configurable systems

that are designed to fit with a customer’s current business architecture and applications.



Management

HP takes a software stack approach to enterprise server, storage and network management. The stack is made up of

HP Systems Insight Manager with Insight Control and Matrix Operating Environment extensions for servers or

blades running Microsoft, Linux, HP-UX, or VM implementations.

HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) is a device / platform manager that supports Microsoft® Windows®, HP-

UX 11iv1, HP-UX 11iv2, HP-UX 11iv3, and Red Hat, and SUSE Linux. HP SIM provides basic management

capabilities for system discovery and identification, single-event view, inventory data collection, and reporting. HP

SIM uses the Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) interface to manage all supported HP servers. HP SIM

provides the option of a browser-based GUI or a command line interface (CLI).

HP SIM provides plug-ins for HP client, server, storage, power, and printer products. Plug-in applications include

workload management, capacity management, virtual machine (VM) management, and partition management using

HP Integrity Essentials.

Security

Base level security is provided through HP Systems Insight Manager with Role-based security, Manage Secure

Shell (SSH) keys, Secure Remote Management, and Configure or Repair Agents.

HP SIM Role-based security gives system administrators control over which users can perform specific

management operations on specific systems.

HP SIM’s Manage Secure Shell (SSH) keys feature lets customers view and manage, from the CMS, the

public SSH keys stored in the known hosts file. The SSH keys enable the CMS to authenticate a secure

connection with a managed system.

HP SIM Secure Remote Management uses operating system level security for user authentication and

uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Shell (SSH) to encrypt management communications.

The Configure or Repair Agents feature available in HP SIM enables customers to repair credentials for

SNMP settings, System Management Homepage, or Management HTTP Server trust relationships on

systems supported by HP SIM.

However, many of the more evolved security functions require specific 3rd party tools. In addition HP is still in the

process of integrating their Arcsite, Fortify, and Tipping Point acquisitions.

HP Cloud System Matrix

Cloud System Matrix is a packaged offering for private cloud and IaaS solutions that uses the Matrix Operating

Environment and accesses HP application portals to facilitate solution creation and deployment. It can support up to

10,000 virtual machine instances using the Insight Control Management in a federated environment. Using Cloud

Service Automation with Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager automation and provisioning of virtual machines can

be accomplished through a single interface. HP Cloud Maps extends this offering with prepackaged applications or

development facilities allowing the user to acquire applications for the Matrix Environment. HP Utility Ready

Computing provides on time capacity allocation and services in the Matrix Operating Environment



The base level Cloud System Matrix offering includes SAN and or iSCSI Interconnects, the Matrix Operating

Environment base, Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager, Insight Manager, and optional Cloud Service automation.

Cloud Service Automation is a utility for management and optimization of the Matrix Cloud environment. It

supports application deployment, resource deployment and virtual machine charge and usage accounting.

In addition, HP provides a Matrix Reference Architecture with best practices and tested configurations for Oracle

Application and Database Server, my SAP, BEA Weblogic, SAS, DB2 and IBM WebSphere. HP Solution Blocks

are standalone applications that are not integrated into Matrix Cloud solutions at the present time. Solution Blocks

are delivered assembled and tested through HP Factory Express with on-site installation and training provided.

HP Cloud Start is an optional add on service available to customers looking for technical support and consulting by

HP Services in preparation for implementing HP’s Cloud Matrix solutions.

CloudMaps

HP Cloud Maps provide a navigation system for users architecting infrastructure for applications and services. HP

claims that Cloud Maps automate cloud service deployment for HP’s Cloud System Matrix for application

implementation.

HP Cloud Maps are a collection of templates for hardware and software configuration that can be imported into

Cloud System Matrix. CloudMaps provides support for tools to help guide capacity and performance planning with

a series of canned Workflows and scripts that are supposed to automate installation and support the automatic reuse

of established and customized installation scripts. Furthermore HP provides reference white papers or cook books

of recipes that explain how to customize the Cloud Map.

As of May 2012 there are 58 Infrastructure Maps for download including applications from Oracle, SAP, Red Hat,

Microsoft, HP, TIBCO and others. There is a very clear difference between an infrastructure Map and an

application from an established ISV where the term “Infrastructure Map” implies that the customer or a systems

integrator has to implement this type of solution. In either case, reading between the lines, using “Infrastructure

Maps” is likely to require additional investment on the part of the customer.

In addition, there are 31 Application Provisioning Maps available for download.

Storage

HP offers storage solutions ranging from SMB to Enterprise Class. IBM PureSystems support FC SAN, iSCSI , and

SAS. HP’s storage is collection of offerings accrued through recent acquisitions (Lefthand, 3PAR, and IBRIX) in

combination with legacy StorageWorks EVA and Compaq Modular Storage (renamed P2000).

HP has grown their storage offering through a series of acquisitions in storage technology, hardware and software.

Integrating these acquisitions and their unique cultures into HP is a long process specifically with regard to HP’s

Converged Infrastructure storage components. These storage systems are all Insight Manager certified providing a

common monitoring and management environment for at least the hardware components.

Compute Nodes

HP offers Intel Itanium, as well as, Intel and AMD x86 blades. HP offers the BL460 Gen 8 in a Half-Height form

factor with an improved Smart Array P220i to support two SAS, SATA, or SSD drives. The blade also supports

two PCIe 3.0 Mezzanine slots for increased performance for SAN, LAN attach capability. HP’s BL460 blade

offers less DIMM slots and less memory capacity than IBM’s Flex 240 node.



Comparison

For the purposes of evaluating and comparing vendors of integrated converged systems HRG has listed a number of

contributing factors in the table that follows as a way to evaluate and rate competing vendors on their effectiveness

in meeting customer requirements for simplifying the selection, purchase, installation, configuration,

implementation, and management of IT solutions for business.

Within the following table HRG uses a graphic device which comprises 5 elements that

indicate a rating on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the worst possible rating and 100 is the

best possible rating. One additional dimension of this rating scheme is that these graphic

elements can also be understood to indicate the level of completeness of a feature or

function where 0 would indicate that a function is totally lacking and 100 would indicate

that the function is currently complete as regards all requirements from a customer

perspective.

The vendor offerings that are compared in the following table are: IBM PureFlex / IBM PureSystem vs. HP

Converged System / HP Cloud Maps. The factors each offering is compared on were selected based on their clarity

and applicability across the selected solutions.

The following evaluation criteria were used to build the comparison table on page 11.

Automation:

Automation of repetitive tasks

Automation of basis system management and administrative functions

Advanced automation or unattended automation such that the system will self-manage minimal human

operator intervention

Automation provides advanced management functionality such as unattended system failover, VM

migration, security and other system level updates.

Cloud:

Cloud readiness – is the system cloud ready on initial power up?

Cloud Functionality – is the system delivered with all of the functionality required to launch a private cloud

implementation?

Is the Cloud implementation scalable with little or no direct human intervention?

Configuration:

Does the system arrive at the customer site fully configured and ready to do useful work?

What is the level of completeness of configuration?

Does the system require installation and set up at the customer site by a value added reseller or systems

integrator?

Is the configuration process flexible providing a broad enough range of configuration to meet most normal

customer requirements?

Factory Assembly & Integration:

Is the system fully assembled at the factory or does the customer have to install blades and other

components on delivery so that the system is ready to work in a production environment?

What level of component and software integration is part of the assembly process?

Are all components and software certified by the vendor to work as advertised?

Management & Administration:

What is the level of usability of system management software by minimally trained administrators?

How intuitive is the graphical user interface of the system management software?

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%



Is fully functional full capability management software provided by the vendor or does the customer have

to purchase and install additional 3rd

party software?

Is the management software that the vendor installs able to learn and automate system management tasks?

Network:

Does the system arrive as a network ready system that is ready to integrate into existing network

infrastructure with minimal human intervention?

Does the system come preconfigured with all required networking functionality and switching capability

integrated, certified, and factory tested?

Does the system’s internal network architecture facilitate optimal VM migration to accommodate changing

workload requirements and or compute node fail over?

Ordering & Installation:

How easy is the system to order?

Is the system available in standard easy to consume configurations?

Is the system orderable as a single part number or does the customer have to invoke a cumbersome

configuration process when placing an order?

When the system arrives at the customer site what level of support is required to unpack, setup, install, and

operate the system?

Patterns of Expertise

Does the system come with preintegrated patterns of expertise which are applied to system management?

Is the system assembled and preconfigured leveraging vendor experience and patterns of expertise?

Does the system support the creation and implementation of customer derived patterns of expertise?

Security

Does the system come with security software pre integrated and preinstalled so that it boots into a secure

configuration on initial power up?

Does the integrated system security capability include automatic vulnerability profile update and

application of system patches?

Does the system come in a prehardened configuration with security functionality that protects firmware and

virtual machines from evolving vulnerabilities and attack vectors?

Storage

Does the system come with preintegrated storage installed?

Does the system management software support full storage virtualization?

Does the system management software support the integration and virtualization of third party storage?

Virtualization

Does the system support key industry standard hypervisors?

Can the management software that comes with the system manage all aspects of virtualization?

Can the management software manage and optimize virtualized workloads to meet evolving SLA and QOS

requirements?



Rating Factor

IBM PureSystem HP Converged System Comment

Automation

HP is still integrating their automation skills. IBM has in-house expertise and solutions that have been integrated into PureSystems.

Cloud IBM PureFlex Systems include IBM Smart Cloud Entry (SCE) offering for

building and manage private clouds securely, efficiently and quickly.

PureFlex comes with Lab ”free” services hours which can be used to

configure SCE. HP offers Cloud MAPs and services.

Configuration IBM PureFlex is available in one of 3 standardized and optimized configurations: Express, Standard, and Enterprise and each of these can be customized, configured, and tuned at the IBM factory instead of in customer’s data center.

Factory

Assembly &

Integration

IBM delivers a complete factory assembled and integrated solution in a single shippable container with all components mounted and ready to run in a single true turnkey foot print. HP offers a factory build, integration, and test facility comparable to IBM.

Mgmt. &

Admin

IBM has in-house expertise, experience and software that has been integrated into and optimized for IBM PureSystems. HP relies on layered components built on Insight Manager and extended to support virtualization and cloud.

Network PureSystems in chassis messaging is superior to HP’s combination of iLO (chassis based networking) and Virtual Connect (total network management). The flexibility of HP’s switch offerings make for increased flexibility but lacks redundancy for availability.

Ordering &

Installation One price, one part number, one shipping container – it will be hard for HP to catch up with IBM PureSystems in this area.

Patterns of

expertise

Clearly IBM benefits from the years spent honing system development, customization, deployment, and custom consulting skills. A clear win for IBM. However, HP is building this skill base quickly both thru experience and acquisition.

Security

IBM has built in system security at the chassis level. IBM PureSystems are designed to boot in a security integrated and optimized configuration. HP provides equivalent functionality but as an add-on feature.

Storage IBM’s Storwize V7000 is factory integrated and optimized in the IBM PureSystem rack can integrated, virtualize, and manage IBM and 3rd party storage like EMC. HP offers a range of small to high end Storage across multiple “Brands”.

Virtualization There are differences between HP and IBM regarding virtualization – IBM has excellent virtualization capabilities through Power VM and KVM – HP offers a range of virtualization expertise across both Microsoft, Linux and UNIX based systems.



Conclusion

With the recent introduction of IBM PureSystems IBM earns high marks meeting the challenges that face most

business and IT CXOs and managers today. IBM once again demonstrates that they are in touch with their

customers and are aggressively working to provide solutions and benefits for customers who need to reduce their

TCO and accelerate time to value. The new IBM PureSystems are flexible, agile and easy to implement business

centric IT solutions.

IBM PureSystems combine industry leading server, enterprise storage, networking, virtualization and management

experience, expertise, and capabilities into a single physical and logical structure that simplifies management,

delivers on the promise of responsive and flexible business driven deployment, and integrates real-world based

patterns of virtual and hardware resources through a “single pane of glass” unified management view.

The new IBM PureSystem offerings; IBM PureFlex infrastructure systems, IBM PureApplication platform system,

and associated partner programs, deliver significant business system and solution value to customers looking for

positive business impact and results.

The integrated expertise embodied in the new IBM PureFlex Systems goes beyond the basic management and

functionality of the underlying components. By building in and tightly integrating good management practices and

automation designed to streamline systems management with the expertise that IBM has gained through decades

of running and deploying thousands of business critical applications IBM is delivering significant experience,

expertise, technology innovation and business knowledge in a single easy to consume offering.

IBM PureFlex is a robust and thoroughly integrated solution. The new form factor and increased capabilities of the

available half width and full width compute nodes makes for an impressive offering. It appears that HP is betting

the corporation on its Converged Infrastructure play. IBM has a clear lead in the hearts and minds of Large

Enterprise users who see IBM as the thought and function leader. Furthermore, IBM PureSystem delivers a rich

solution suite of offerings as contrasted to HP’s Converged Systems.

The new IBM PureSystems with built-in expertise represent the next step in the evolution of Information

Technology. This new offering provides what executives and business owners have been looking for – an easy to

use system that delivers functional richness without the complexity of previous generation systems.

We recommend that you a give these new systems a closer look!



Harvard Research Group is an information technology market research and consulting company. The company

provides highly focused market research and consulting services to vendors and users of computer hardware,

software, and services. For more information please contact Harvard Research Group:

Harvard Research Group

PO. Box 297

Harvard, MA 01451 USA

Tel. (978) 456-3939

e-mail: [email protected]

http://www.hrgresearch.com

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