HP Plans To Help Companies Lessen Application Backlog

As part of integrating its 2008 purchase of the Electronic Data Systems services company, now known as HP Enterprise Services, Hewlett-Packard announced a combination of seven products and services intended to help user organizations transform applications.

In particular, the portfolio is intended to help make user organizations more flexible and able to rid themselves of application backlog, much of which includes products with functionality that duplicates that of other products. The applications and services help user organizations discover applications in their environment, eliminate duplicated and outdated applications, create a cloud-based environment, modernize their client environment, and improve security.

HP has been selected by the Flemish government--essentially, the county of Flanders, in Belgium--as its main information and communications technology partner, says Luc Chauvin, ICT manager. The purpose of the seven-year contract is to deliver e-government services to the organization's 6 million citizens, he says.

"The environment consists of several key components to enable fast and efficient e-government services: user identification and management, access control management, data interchange through a service-oriented architecture structure, and a digital signature platform." These components are used as generic building blocks to deploy services to the public, such as study grants and building permits, including, in some cases, an automatic proactive delivery "push" model as opposed to a reactive "pull" model, he says.

Organizations are bringing new applications in, but not switching old applications off, says Paul Muller, VP of strategic marketing for HP Software, claiming that organizations can be more flexible the fewer applications they have. HP Application Portfolio Management software, delivered as a service, helps users discover applications, while the Application Rationalization Service helps them plan how to eliminate duplicates.Application Transformation to Cloud Services creates a custom cloud environment, while Cloud Service Automation 2.0 helps users provision cloud services. Application Transformation Services for Client Computing helps users find computers running outdated versions of Windows.

HP Fortify Real-Time Hybrid Analysis looks for security vulnerabilities. Finally, Enterprise Cloud Services for Microsoft Dynamic CRM runs Microsoft's CRM suite in HP's cloud.

Jim Duggan, VP focusing on application development for the Gartner analyst firm, says that users need to be aware that, while HP will bring some practices and framework, much of the work and organizational change will still need to be internal to the company. Comparing it to a personal trainer, HP won't know the user's business in detail, or its organizational history and politics, and will need to discover that detail buried in the user organization by leading it through the steps--in the hopes of positioning itself as the best source for project execution once the user organization reaches the implementation stage, Duggan says.

HP Fortify Real-Time Hybrid Analysis costs $10,000 per server for existing HP WebInspect and HPFortify 360 users. HP Applications Transformation to Cloud Services is available as an assessment pack for up to 50 applications for $28,500. HP Cloud Service Automation starts at $35,000. HP declined to reveal pricing information for the other products and services.

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