l Basically, this boils down to new features in HP OpenView and Work Load Manager, right?
HP has introduced a framework called Darwin Reference Architecture. We’ve also introduced a series of services, which guide organizations to the destination of Adaptive Enterprise. We have introduced an Agility Assessment Service- that helps the organisations to assess the state of readiness. Right from Agility Assessment Service to Adaptive Architecture, there are a host of services that become the part of the Adaptive Enterprise. From a technology perspective, there is enhancement to the HP OpenView. We have incorporated the work load manager kinds of products into virtual server environment which allows you to allocate computing resources based on application needs. The concept of Adaptive Enterprise demonstrates our move towards a common Itanium Architecture –allowing our customers the flexibility of using different OS like UNIX, LINUX, Microsoft Window 2003. A bunch of other services like—IT consolidation, virtualization etc are also offered.

l How is this different from IBM’s autonomic computing?
HP’s vision of Adaptive Enterprise is significantly different the competition, HP’s vision includes a set of services, primarily the Agility Assessment Services. HP developed this, in conjunction with some leading business schools in Europe. Agility Assessment Services allows a business to understand where it stands on the important metrics of agility, in terms of its business processes and organizational dynamics. HP has a rich portfolio of other service which are directly linked to the infrastructure. HP has unmatched expertise and technical leadership in the space of virtualization.

l What is HP’s background strength to be able to access agility in areas like HR or client retention?
The biggest strength that HP, today, brings to the table in terms of understanding the Adaptive Enterprise and the need for agility it’s own experience, in terms of going through the largest technology merger in the history of the whole world. We have been successful in integrating the two organizations over a period of last 12 months & this included the mammoth task of integrating the IT infrastructure of the 2 enterprises: pre-merger HP organization and pre-merger Compaq organization. We also had to align the two workforces in terms of common compensation benefits and common metrics of measurement. The very fact that we have been able to grow our business substantially, is a clear indication of customer retention capabilities.  All these experiences have given us valuable insights in providing organizations with the building blocks of the Adaptive Enterprise.

l How is the adaptive architecture different from the traditional 3-tier applications?
Adaptive Architecture is different from the 3-tier Application Architecture, in many respects.  In the traditional architecture, we have noticed the development of silos at the application level, where each application would run in itself. Adaptive Enterprise necessitates that these applications be able to talk to each other in real time and they be able to share information with each other in real time. At a hardware level, most of the traditional applications would have run in stand-alone environments. Today we are talking about adaptive applications running on a set of virtualized resources, where the physical size and boundaries of the server or storage has no meaning..  

l You promised Alcatel a 30% reduction in printing and copying costs. How is your printer and consumables division taking this?
HP needs to be looked upon as a single organization. When we talk about the concept of AE, this is something that cuts across all the products and solutions of HP. This includes the products that are coming from the printing and imaging businesses as well. In each of these divisions the basic endeavor is to lower the cost of ownership and the cost of operations for the customer. We believe that better resource utilization will result in the ability to pass on significant cost savings the customers.

Krishna Kumar
(The author is Executive Editor of PCQuest, part of the Cyber Media Group of publications)