Dubai, UAE June 28, 2010 – HP today announced the appointment of Diaa Mohamed as General Manager- Human Resources for HP Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa (MEMA).

In his new role, Diaa will oversee the development and implementation of a robust people strategy that will strengthen hp’s position as a preferred employer of choice for the best available talent in the MEMA region, which covers 71countries.

Prior to this role, Diaa was the VP of Human Resources at BP overseeing Middle East, North Africa & South Asia.  His past work experience also includes successful stint at Motorola where he was the regional director of Human Resources for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Mohamed’s appointment will provide further momentum to HP’s existing recruitment and development programme which will enable HP to achieve its ambitious growth plans and contribute to the development of local talent across MEMA.

“Diaa Mohamed’s past experience and proven track record in leading Human Resource functions across diverse markets will prove to be an asset. We welcome him onboard and with his insights we are confident to further attract and retain our most important resource – our employees and strengthen our leadership position in key growth markets across MEMA”, said Santiago Cortes, HP MEMA MD and EB VP. “Diaa is the first person from the region who leads the HR function for HP in MEMA, and this is a clear example of HP’s commitment to this strategic region”

Diaa holds a degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering, and has spoken at many international HR and business conferences across Middle East, Asia & Europe. He has received the HR Leadership Award by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress in Feb 2007 and Global HR Award by Rapport Bangladesh Limited in July 2008.

First-of-its-kind initiative addresses gap in $7.5 billion midsize enterprise market

Dubai, UAE, June 23, 2010 – HP today announced the HP ten.to.one initiative to help fuel the growth of channel partners and midsize enterprises and to simplify their data centers.

HP ten.to.one is a first-of-its-kind(1) initiative that includes new software, an enhanced partner program and a primary research survey,(2) all geared toward midsize enterprises.  Also, a new organization called HP Commercial Solutions has been formed within the HP Software and Solutions business unit to deliver on the ten.to.one initiative.

Midsize enterprises typically have smaller IT organizations with less specialization and fewer autonomous departments compared to large enterprises. The ten.to.one initiative is designed to accelerate business growth for midsize clients and HP channel partners by helping deploy, integrate and manage business technology solutions faster and with less complexity.

Simplify cloud deployment

A global survey conducted last month by Forrester Consulting on behalf of HP indicates that midsize enterprises are actively evaluating cloud services. Half of the midsize enterprise survey respondents said they were planning to implement cloud computing, as opposed to 29 percent of large enterprise respondents.

Simplify risk management

Security and risk management is the top priority for midsize businesses. Data protection and backup were identified as the technologies most needed to address risk management.

HP Data Protector has been enhanced to give customers eight methods of protection when running environments using Microsoft® Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.

With HP Data Protector extended to Hyper-V, HP is the only provider to offer the most complete backup integration for virtualization at the most affordable cost – up to 70 percent less than alternatives.

Simplify infrastructure management

Midsize enterprises are dissatisfied with IT reacting to service issues. They want IT to more effectively monitor their systems, predict issues and control the quality of service to business requirements.

With the new HP SiteScope Operations Manager, midsize organizations can cost-effectively improve business service availability and performance through faster monitoring of IT infrastructures and applications.

Improve channel partner success

Midsize enterprises are increasingly turning to value-added resellers and system integrators to monitor and manage their business technology.

The HP ten.to.one initiative helps channel partners better monitor and manage business technology with tailored sales and marketing tools. The program includes persona-based training, partner certifications, boot camps and a social media community. It also offers a campaign syndication service to easily build, customize and monitor campaigns and lead generation.

“The combination of HP technology with ITS’ regional presence and leadership in services integration provides EMEA customers with business value in a unique, consistent, predictable and cost effective way. This unique value allows the customers to focus on their business and outrun their competition”, said Khaled Al Saeid, General Manager and Managing Director, International Turnkey Systems.

HP provides a portfolio of services to help partners meet the needs of their midsize enterprise clients. This includes HP Professional Services, HP Software Education training, HP Software as a Service (SaaS) and Managed Service Provider Program offerings.

“Channel Partners are and will be leading our go to market in this segment and we at HP will continue to support our key partners with marketing programs directed towards the small to mid-sized businesses. In addition to this, channel partners will see more profitability and value add through special incentives offered in the new channel partner program,” said Sabby Gill, Vice President, HP Commercial Sales EMEA

More information about HP ten.to.one is available at www.hp.com/go/software/midsize.

Dubai, UAE, May 16, 2010 – HP today announced products, solutions and services that help organizations shift their IT spending from operations to innovation.

New research conducted on behalf of HP(1) reveals that one out of every two business executives feel their companies suffer from “innovation gridlock,” in which IT organizations are blocked from driving new business innovation because the majority of their funding is consumed by operating the current environment. More than one out of every two business and technology executives feel this gridlock is preventing their organizations from keeping up with the competition.

This gridlock also carries inherent costs. Ninety-five percent of respondents said innovation gridlock cost them lost opportunities; 93 percent indicated it cost them in terms of lost effort from resources; and 99 percent said it cost them lost time.

HP’s new offerings allow organizations to break the IT innovation gridlock by creating self-funding projects that allow transformation within current budgetary constraints and offer quick paybacks.

“Today organizations have an option to improve their time to market and capitalize on new business opportunities by breaking the innovation gridlock. This can mean a world of difference when it comes to being a market maker or a follower,” said John Hoonhout, Managing Director, HP Middle East.

HP is offering qualified clients a complimentary, hands-on HP Applications Modernization Transformation Experience session,(2) which enables organizations to experience modernization and its benefits. By retiring legacy applications and eliminating complexity in technology environments, organizations are able to self-fund their modernization journeys.

In addition, new HP Modernization Funding Options provide clients with access to capital based on the value of existing systems, helping to fund investments in new technology and innovation.(3)

Advancements to the HP Insight Control server management software suite include HP Integrated Lights-Out Advanced (iLO 3), which significantly improves system operations and efficiency throughout the server life cycle. Addressing one of the largest operational cost centers for most enterprises, iLO 3 can lower administration costs through simplified server setup, power and thermal optimization, and embedded system health monitoring.

HP also introduced additional HP ProLiant servers – the DL360 G7 and DL380 G7.¬   These servers advance traditional server economics by exponentially improving cost-efficiency while increasing performance. HP ProLiant G7 servers deliver a 20:1 or greater consolidation ratio, a 27 times performance-per-watt increase, and an industry-leading two-month return on investment.(4) After the initial payback, these servers continue to deliver savings that can be used to invest in new IT projects.

The HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) solution enables clients to architect their IT environments for change by accelerating the deployment and automated management of private and public cloud initiatives. 

With the new HP CSA solution, clients can improve efficiency, free up resources and lower the risks associated with the adoption and management of cloud services. This allows them to capitalize on new cloud-based services to quicken time to market. HP CSA is part of the company’s initiative to combine its software portfolio with consulting expertise to help clients successfully adopt and manage the entire life cycle of cloud services.

Free up funds trapped in operations

New services from HP help companies create cost-efficient technology infrastructures that are consistently reliable, readily scalable and totally secure. HP delivers people, process and technology improvements that identify the root causes of unplanned downtime in complex environments.

Additional resources

More information about HP’s new offerings, including a video from Thomas E. Hogan, is available at www.hp.com/go/breakthegridlock2010.

HP ProLiant G7 servers with AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors deliver more value, rapid return on investment

Dubai, UAE, April 8, 2010 – HP today introduced three HP ProLiant G7 server platforms that offer a significant performance boost and enhanced power savings over previous generations.

Delivering a 23:1 consolidation ratio, HP ProLiant G7 servers with AMD Opteron™ 6100 Series processors increase operational efficiencies, paying for themselves in as little as two months.(1) The line includes the HP ProLiant DL165 G7 and HP ProLiant DL385 G7 rack-optimized servers, as well as the HP ProLiant SL165z G7 scale-out “skinless” server.

HP ProLiant servers are part of the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio, which integrates servers, storage, network devices and facility resources into a common environment, allowing IT to rapidly respond to business demands. HP ProLiant servers provide modular, standards-based building blocks that advance clients toward a converged infrastructure.

“HP has a complete Converged Infrastructure portfolio that integrates the customer’s existing silos of servers, storage, network, management and facility resources into a common converged environment. As the leader of the x86 market for 54 consecutive quarters as per IDC’s WorldWide Q409 Quarterly Server Tracker, HP continues to innovate and deliver radical performance improvement and Return on Investment for customers,” said Ahmed Rashad, ISS business unit and sales manager, HP Middle East.

“HP has set the trend for today’s server portfolio and we continue the path of innovation beyond industry standards with our next generation servers.”

HP ProLiant servers include HP Thermal Logic technologies to reduce power consumption by as much as 96 percent.(2) Power savings are achieved through the combination of the following energy-saving features such as HP Sea of Sensors – optimizes system cooling and increases efficiency by automatically tracking thermal activity through a collection of up to 32 smart sensors placed strategically throughout the server. The sensors automatically adjust system components such as fans, memory and input/output processing to reduce energy usage.  The HP Power Advisor enables clients to improve energy efficiency by more accurately configuring systems based on real-time power guidance for their specific workloads.

In addition, energy-efficiency innovations in the HP ProLiant platforms, combined with the new AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors, deliver a 27 times performance-per-watt increase.

The HP ProLiant platform offers a comprehensive set of embedded technologies and flexible tools to maximize the productivity of an IT infrastructure, including HP Insight Control software that improves management productivity while reducing operational expenses up to $48,000 for every 100 users by allowing clients to control the management and monitoring of the server infrastructure onsite or remotely. HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) Advanced – enables clients to simplify server management and troubleshoot problems from any location, regardless of the server’s operating state while the HP Insight Remote Support software reduces issue resolution time by 20 percent with secure remote support for HP servers and storage, including monitoring for hardware failure to avoid problems before they occur.

Pricing and availability

The new HP ProLiant DL165, DL385 and SL165z G7 platforms are expected to be available next month worldwide. Prices for HP ProLiant G7 servers start at €965 and vary based on specific configurations.

More information on HP ProLiant servers is available at www.hp.com/go/proliant.

Delivers on unified communications and collaboration initiative with Microsoft

Dubai, UAE: April 3, 2010 – HP today announced the expansion of its unified communications and collaboration portfolio with offerings optimized for Microsoft Communications Server “14,” the next version of Microsoft’s unified communications platform.

The new offerings help clients improve productivity and lower costs by consolidating infrastructure, devices and management tools.

Communication modes, technologies and devices are multiplying within organizations, often in isolation from each other and critical business operations. This creates a communications environment that slows decision-making, spends valuable IT resources on maintenance and drives up operations costs. The new HP offerings enable clients to improve business output and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs by integrating with Microsoft Communications Server “14.”

Building on the unified communications and collaboration initiative between HP and Microsoft announced in May 2009, the offerings include:

— The HP Survivable Branch Communication zl Module that reduces IT infrastructure at remote branch offices and extends the business productivity and reliability of Communications Server “14.” It combines Microsoft Communications Server “14” and HP ProCurve software within HP ProCurve Switch 8200zl and 5400zl series products.

— Four existing PC models designed to provide a rich business-grade voice and video user experience at a lower total cost of ownership are now tested and qualified as optimized for unified communications by Microsoft.

“Organizations face growing challenges with a mobile workforce, increasing complexity and business performance pressure,” said Alaa AlShimy, General Manager, HP ProCurve Middle East. “With these new offerings, we are enhancing how people interact, shorten business decision cycle times and connect remote employees to company culture.”

PCs provide high-quality user experience, lower total cost of ownership

HP PCs qualified for Microsoft Communicator “14” eliminate the need for additional devices to place and receive voice or video calls. The models include:

— HP TouchSmart 9100 Business PC – For businesses in hospitality, retail, healthcare and government verticals looking to engage their customers with immersive, interactive content through a multitouch user interface.

— HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC – Sets a new standard for on-the-move productivity with all-day battery life(1) and business-rugged features.

— HP EliteBook 8530w and 8730w Mobile Workstations – Features workstation-caliber graphics that are tested, optimized and certified to run the most demanding professional applications for mobile power users.

“Today’s increasingly mobile workforce introduces technology and support challenges requiring end-users to become more self-sufficient,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, Office Communications Group, Microsoft Corp. “Communications Server ‘14’ combined with HP’s Survivable Branch Communication zl Module and UC qualified PCs delivers reliable voice infrastructure for branch offices as well as a high-quality user experience.”

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 8, 2010: HP today announced that Sahara Petrochemicals Company (Sahara), a Saudi based industrial development company specializing in petrochemical, chemicals and related products, has selected HP BladeSystem and HP ProLiant servers solutions to automate and optimise its datacentre processes.

The new implementation is part of Sahara’s technology overhaul to support and meet its growth objectives.

The HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure deployed at Sahara will allow it to consolidate its server, storage, network, power and management capabilities into a ‘datacenter in a box’. 

Additionally, the HP ProLiant BL460c G6 Server Blade will provide leading performance, expandability and the latest energy efficient technologies that are needed for a dense compute environment such as Sahara’s. The HP ProLiant Server Blade delivers excellent performance and energy savings to reduce overall datacenter spending in power constrained scale-out environments.

Commenting on the hardware implementation, Ihab Y. Hawari, IT Manager at Sahara said, “HP is our chosen technology partner to deliver both immediate business value and ongoing business advantage. When it came to selecting the right datacenter solution we studied the different offerings from various vendors that were available in the market and found that HP solutions best met the requirement of our IT infrastructure. Through this implementation our aim is to address our technology automation and flexibility challenges.”

Sahara has also implemented HP’s Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module for BladeSystem which offers high performance connectivity to the datacenter and makes server administration and server applications more efficient.  With Virtual Connect, Sahara will be able to reduce costs and simplify connections to LANs and SANs, consolidate and precisely control their network connections and enable administrators to add, replace and recover server resources as an when it is needed. 

“The solutions implemented at Sahara offer the best-run IT infrastructure out of a box that is available in the market today. They are manageble, simple to operate and offers flexibility to expand depending on the company’s growth needs. It will also help Sahara reduce up-front capital costs and ongoing power and cooling costs. Our aim is to support companies in the manufacturing sector with our end-to-end solutions and allow them to realize the full potential of their business investment,” said Ali Tamimi, Enterprise Storage, servers and Networking Manager HP Saudi Arabia.
 
HP partners with the industry’s leading hardware and software providers to develop and implement solutions to help customers solve their most pressing datacenter transformation issues.

Dubai, UAE, March 2, 2010 – HP today introduced a range of services for small- to midsize data center operations that help improve efficiency, increase the flexibility of IT budgets and ensure service-level commitments.

With this portfolio of services from HP, owners of small- to midsize data centers can maximize business return on existing assets and drive rapid change with current staff resources. These services simplify management of multivendor environments, enabling clients to take advantage of innovative service-delivery models such as virtualization and cloud computing.

HP also introduced flexible procurement options for custom technology services that benefit clients and the reseller channel.

Always-on reliability through improved operational efficiency

With the requirement of shared, virtualized technology services to be continuously available, there is a new premium on speed, efficiency and 24/7 resource accessibility. HP is delivering services to help clients gain control and broader, deeper visibility into every support-related function across the environment. It helps clients increase service levels, and reduce the complexity and costs of managing heterogeneous technology environments.

HP’s Data Center Training Symposium helps increase staff effectiveness through a custom training plan.

Increase computing capacity, lower energy costs

Structured for data centers up to 5,000 square feet in size, these value assessment services identify opportunities for increasing computing capacity, while reducing energy costs. Basic Capacity Analysis for Smaller Footprints Assessment helps managers allocate a facility’s resources more effectively by arming them with quantitative computing capacity and availability information.

Energy Efficiency Analysis for Smaller Footprints Assessment enables clients to increase energy efficiency to lower costs and decrease the environmental impact of technology infrastructure. HP is unique in that its engineers can assess the whole environment – across infrastructure and facilities – to maximize results and minimize risk.

Enjoy flexible purchase options

HP has simplified the process for small- to midsize businesses to procure technology services that will help them better manage limited resources and drive business value from their technology infrastructures.

“HP’s portfolio of services that address evolving data center trends can help businesses achieve operational excellence, resulting in improved service levels and reduced operating costs and risk,” said Samer Zein, Technology Services Director, HP Middle East. “This allows organizations to rebalance their budgets and resources to focus on innovation for growth, which is key for CIOs and decision makers especially in a growing environment like the Middle East”.

These services are available directly from HP and through the company’s reseller channel. More information about data center services from HP Technology Services is available at www.hp.com/services/evolvingdatacenter.

Dubai, UAE, Feb. 24, 2010 – HP announced enhancements to HP Agile Accelerator to help customers increase the quality of their applications, enhance productivity, and respond to changing business scenarios quickly and cost-effectively.

Based on HP Quality Center software and HP Application Lifecycle Management consulting services, HP Agile Accelerator manages Agile development projects from proposal to production while helping IT departments better meet their application modernization initiatives. 

HP Agile Accelerator helps software development teams improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their business initiatives with predefined workflows, configurations and user reports. Recent enhancements include a built-in resource planning module, which allows development teams to better manage their Agile projects.

Recognizing the need to align applications to business priorities, one of the top initiatives for IT decision makers is to modernize existing legacy applications.  According to a recent Forrester report, almost 60 percent of respondents rated application modernization initiatives as “very important” or “important.”(1) 

By using HP Agile Accelerator for application modernization initiatives, customers can improve business agility with faster response to changing requirements, increase return on investment by delivering quality software early and frequently throughout the application life cycle, enhance productivity through greater collaboration: Standardized progress reporting improves visibility and communication across multiple teams.

HP offers a broad set of services and expertise to support customer application modernization initiatives with Agile practices, including:

HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Consulting Services for Agile HP ALM Discovery Workshop for Agile, Agile Accelerator Packaged Implementation Services – accelerates time to value for customers by tailoring the solution for individual customer needs and environments.

“With Agile quickly becoming a key methodology for application modernization, it is critical for customers to balance quality, performance and security standards with the need for speed. HP Agile Accelerator enhances collaboration among developers, quality assurance and business stakeholders to ensure customers meet their Agile objectives without compromising quality”, said Mounir Mahmoud, Software Director, HP Middle East.

Education and training for HP ALM solutions are available in a variety delivery options including virtual, end-user and instructor led. More information is available at www.hp.com/software/education.

HP ALM solutions, including HP Quality Center, HP Performance Center and HP Application Security Center are offered via HP Software as a Service. More information is available at www.saas.hp.com.

More information about HP Agile Accelerator is available at www.hp.com/go/agile.

Dubai, UAE., Feb. 18, 2010 – HP today extended its cloud consulting services portfolio with a new design service that helps businesses and government agencies accelerate the adoption of cloud-based infrastructures to improve technology and business flexibility.

The HP Cloud Design Service takes a proven approach to designing and deploying scalable, cloud-based infrastructures that speed up the delivery of projects while mitigating risk. Additionally, HP’s design principles ensure the cloud infrastructure can support a hybrid sourcing model that includes private and public cloud options. This allows organizations to consume and deliver services that support different workloads.

As part of the HP Cloud Design Service, HP works with clients to understand their requirements and existing IT investments. HP then creates a customized cloud infrastructure design blueprint and an implementation plan. This plan includes cost estimates, guidelines for deployment, testing, operational management, service life cycle management, governance and support.

The HP Cloud Design Service offers the following benefits for clients:

— Everything needed to offer a cloud service. The HP Reference Architecture for Cloud acts as a common framework for all cloud engagements and accommodates different business requirements, technologies, software stacks and cloud service requirements.

— Speed time to delivery and mitigate implementation risk. The design blueprint and implementation plan take into account people, process, technology, cost estimations and workload migration aspects.

— Reduces costly technology redundancies while helping clients make strategic investment decisions. HP uses tested, repeatable planning and analysis tools from HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 best practices and proven methodologies developed from major cloud design implementations.

— Leverage existing technology investments. Heterogeneous and highly repeatable design principals and objective recommendations ensure seamless integration of HP Converged Infrastructure technologies, HP software and third-party products into the overall cloud infrastructure design.

“Organizations of all types are struggling to understand how to build a cloud-specific infrastructure that is safe and effective while meeting their business objectives,” said Samer Zein, Technology Services Manager, HP Middle East. “HP has the experience to help clients ensure the design and implementation of cloud infrastructure will deliver the expected benefits today and in the future.”

The HP Cloud Design Service is available worldwide with pricing based on specific customer requirements. For clients that are still at the education, strategy or planning stages, HP offers the HP Cloud Discovery Workshop and the HP Cloud Roadmap Service.

The HP cloud services portfolio helps organizations use the cloud as part of a broader IT service delivery strategy. HP takes a comprehensive approach to cloud design – how to build, source, manage and secure it. Most importantly, HP helps customers develop a solid, fact-based business case for fast investment decision making. More information about the complete portfolio of HP Cloud Consulting and Infrastructure Services is available at www.hp.com/services/cloud.

Dubai, UAE, Feb. 11, 2010 – HP today introduced a records management solution that enables customers to significantly reduce the business risks associated with the growing regulatory compliance and legal discovery demands.

HP TRIM 7 – an advanced records management solution built on 24 years of experience and best practices – enables organizations to transparently manage all of their Microsoft SharePoint Server records in a single environment, regardless of the source. This includes documents as well as information found in SharePoint Server blogs, wikis, discussions, forms, calendars and workflows.

Widespread adoption of SharePoint Server provides the opportunity to consolidate and simplify the management of content stored across multiple SharePoint instances. HP TRIM 7 enables the transparent capture, search and management of all types of physical and electronic business information, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the upcoming SharePoint Server 2010. 

“Businesses today are faced with managing an explosion of content 2.0 environments while trying to meet a wave of new regulations. Our new HP TRIM solution allows customers to benefit from a dynamic collaboration platform such as SharePoint with best practices records management and governance capabilities,” said Mounir Mahmoud, Software Director, HP Middle East.

HP TRIM 7 is an advanced records management solution built on 24 years of experience and best practices. To help SharePoint Server customers, HP TRIM provides two new modules: HP TRIM Records Management for SharePoint and HP TRIM Archiving for SharePoint. 

HP TRIM Archiving module helps customers reduce the risk of data loss when reclaiming storage and system resources from SharePoint Server.  The module seamlessly archives specific list objects in SharePoint Server, or entire SharePoint Server sites to HP TRIM. This happens behind the scenes, and allows users to take entire SharePoint Server sites offline once projects are completed, while ensuring continued access to information. 

”We’re pleased to see HP embracing and extending the SharePoint platform for their TRIM offering. For our joint customers, this provides a great opportunity to realize the value of their investment in both technology stacks,” said Tricia Bush, director, Microsoft SharePoint. “This shows the commitment of both companies to openness and interoperability in the content management arena.”

With the new HP TRIM 7 web client interface and its highly configurable, off-the-shelf capabilities, customers can realize a faster deployment compared to other records management solutions – in weeks rather than months. In addition, the improved indexing and search capability allows customers to decrease the time spent searching for critical information as well as reduce response time for legal discovery, compliance requests and audits.

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/informationmanagement