The decision that IBM was selling its x86 server business to Lenovo had me wondering just how quickly HP was going to use that as a cudgel to completely decimate IBM in delivering integrated solutions.

Well, it didn’t take long.

Earlier today, HP announced the latest weapon in its Converged Infrastructure portfolio, and it was a doozy.

From a performance standpoint, it completely blows IBM – the current competition – away.

However, as we all know, any SAP solution is more, much, much more, than just hardware. Implementation takes the software, the hardware, and a very dedicated cadre of SAP professionals in tow. All of these, HP has in spades.

HP ConvergedSystem for SAP HANA

First announced last December at HP Discover Europe in Barcelona by the HP VP for Converged Infrastructure as part of a forward-looking hardware project and under the name Project Shark, the new HP ConvergedSystem for SAP HANA is the beast HP announced.

By all metrics, this product trounced the current incumbent from IBM quite handily.

More impressively, HP brings the experience and might of HP Services, formerly EDS, into the mix.

That bit immediately brings HP up to part with, or as some folks I spoke to observed, surpass IBM, in SAP experience.

Making the point for their expertise, even HP IT runs on SAP HANA.

That, is dogfooding it at it’s best!

Including the performance boost, HP is also aiming for a short order-to-deployment of as little as 15 days. HP will provide support, of course.

The roadmap above shows that HP is not resting on laurels, and plans to rev the ConvergedSystem for SAP HANA even further in a short period of time.

Conclusions
With Lenovo’s purchase of the IBM x86 server business, the underlying server hardware in IBM’s SAP solutions now become suspect, as they must now source server hardware from others. Furthermore, as Lenovo is a low-cost producer, I don’t think anyone believes that their pace of server innovation would pick up. In fact, the general consensus is that it would slow to just over a crawl.

As HP Converged systems have the unsurpassable Proliant DNA imbued into them, primacy in this space seems to be passing to HP from IBM.

© 2002 – 2014, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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