Hp Asset Manager

8/11/2019 Hp Asset Manager

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Implementing HP Asset Manager within our software labs provides us witthe data we need to manage our lab servers more cost-effectively, includinsupporting a consolidation and virtualization initiative that will drive costsavings right to our bottom line.Larry Wong, director of engineering, HPSoftware & Solutions

HP customer casetudy:HP Asset

Manager provides

a foundation forplanning andmplementing a serveronsolidation andirtualization initiative

ndustry:Technology

Under the direction of Randy Mott, HP began a mtechnology infrastructure consolidation project toreduce its worldwide data centers from 85 to six.

About this same time, HP also began implementinstrategic growth plans for its software business. Itbegan to acquire software companies, spurringfast-paced business and process integrations. HPmore than tripled the number of employees withinHP software while greatly enriching the solution

portfolio HP offers its customers. This rapid growth enabled HP to vault into a leadership position in ento-end enterprise business technology managementthe company is now the third largest enterpriseapplication software company in the United Statesand sixth in the world.

Objective:Consolidate islands of computing into amore standardized and cost-efficient server

infrastructure that leverages virtualizationtechnology

Approach:Implement a lifecycle asset tracking approachto managing server inventory throughoutthe organization

IT improvements:Server inventories take minutes, instead ofrequiring four months of manual counting ineach software lab

Asset information is always up-to-date

Quick and simple access to relevant reportsand dashboards

Maximized server usage through virtualizationand shared resources

Business outcomes:Supported 30% reduction of HP softwarelab servers

Server reduction has reduced lab operating

expenses by 20%Clear understanding of what servers aredeployed, and where

Improved ability to plan, budget

Improved ability to determine whether serverresources can be shared among labs

HP Software optimizes its server assetsHP Asset Manager software enables HP division to reduce serversby 30 percent, operating costs by more than 20 percent


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Acquiring the new subsidiariesover a half dozensoftware companies altogetheralso added to thesize and complexity of HPs technology infrastructure.Each new acquisition became its own island ofcomputing. Each new software development labcame to HP with its own servers and technologymanagement processes.

And while the environment needs to beheterogeneousHP software must run on allcommercially available servers. HP software

developers must also have a variety of systemsavailable for testing HP applicationsit is importantto standardize as much as possible, to improvemanageability and keep costs down.

As HPs software business became significant toHP as a whole, both strategically and from a revenueperspective, we knew we would have to achievehigh standards for operational productivity, notesLarry Wong, director of engineering, HP Software& Solutions.

Wong, who leads a team to consolidate HP softwares

R&D labs, cites a number of areas the companytargeted for improvementareas familiar to mosttechnology companies. The time to provision newservers was taking too long is one example. Manyolder servers were kept in service beyond theirlifecycle and often unnecessarily. There was no wayto understand, at an enterprise level, the status ofservers, such as which systems had reached end-of-lifeor were fully depreciated.

Were on a journey toward making our infrastructuremore efficient, productive, and cost-effective. HP Asset

Manager has proven an invaluable tool in that journey.Larry Wong, director of engineering,HP Software & Solutions

To address these issues, HP needed to understandwhat systems were deployed in its software labs,

Wong notes. So his team turned to HP Asset Managersoftware, an application that allows companies tocollect technology asset information into acentralized database.

Push button asset reportingTo implement the software, Wong leveraged anotherHP resource: the HP Software Professional Servicesorganization. HP Professional Services providesthe expertise to set up HP Asset Manager quickly,

Wong notes. Their technicians know what questionsto ask. They helped us get us up to speed quickly.

With the help of HP Professional Services, the initial

implementation of the Asset Manager software ontook a couple of days. Over the next couple of weusers were trained on how to use the software andfine tune the application to their personal needs.

Reporting was really the heart and soul of whatHP Labs needed to have a successful implementatThey needed good metrics that would providevisibility into the changes within their infrastructureProfessional Services helped Wongs team apprecthe powerful reporting capabilities of HP AssetManager. Before HP Professional Services consuwith us, we didnt realize how powerful the reportcapabilities were, Wong says. We learned howto set up Asset Manager to support push buttonreporting, replacing the manual reporting processwe relied on before.

Another way HP Professional Services helped wasintegrating HP Asset Manager with other applicatdeployed in the software lab infrastructure. The teaused HP Connect-It software to link HP Asset Manato a homegrown server reservation system alreadyin use within HP software. As a result, when usersplace requests for servers, the requests and requestatus are logged by HP Asset Manager. This enaa more comprehensive understanding of user needand lets HP identify opportunities for users to movshare server resources which is critical to maximiz

server capacity and usage.Inventories take minutes, not weeksOnce deployed, HP Asset Manager benefits wereimmediately apparent. The last time we inventoriour servers, each of our labs had to assign peopledo the work manually, Wong says, noting that thwere about 40,000 servers in use within the softw


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labs at the time. It took each lab about a month tocomplete the count.

Today, inventorying the systems is completely

automated. Inventories are updated continually, sothe data is always current. Performing the inventoriesdoesnt require labs to pull staff from other, moreimportant tasks allowing them to focus ondeveloping software.

HP is enhancing Asset Managers capabilities evenmore, Wong adds, by putting RFID (Radio FrequencyIdentification) tags on its servers. When serversare physically moved, data about the move will becaptured by HP Asset Manager. Well know whereour servers are as soon as theyre moved from oneroom to another, Wong says.

Once you know what you own, you can makejudgments about why you own it and how you areusing it. This can help managers make better budgetprojections as they plan upcoming projects andinfrastructure upgrades.Larry Wong, director of engineering,HP Software & Solutions

HP Asset Manager also gave Wong the necessarytools for the lab server consolidation project. He could

quickly determine how many servers were deployedin each software lab and how much square footageeach site was dedicating to its servers. This formed abasis for planning the consolidation effort. We hadthe data we needed to decide which sites we wantedto target, in which order.

Since beginning the consolidation effort, Wongcontinues, HP reduced the number of servers in

its software labs by around 30 percent, with acomparable reduction in the square footage requito house its servers.

Reducing the number of servers also made theinfrastructure less costly to operate. Weve reduceour operating expenses by more than 20 percent,

Wong says. We did this by automating the entireend-to-end lifecycle asset tracking process. The goafor continued process improvement and cost saving

Primary applicationsServer consolidation

Primary hardware HP ProLiant BL460c Server Blades

HP Integrity BL860c Server Blades

HP ProLiant DL360 Servers

Primary software HP Asset Manager software

HP Connect-It software

HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping for Inventory (DDMI)

HP Services HP Software Professional Services

Customer solution at a glance


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Technology for better business outcomes

To learn more, visit www.hp.com/go/software 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change

ithout notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warrantyatements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting andditional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

AA0-7548ENW, January 2010

HP software has also begun to implement HPDiscovery and Dependency Mapping for Inventory(DDMI) tool for better physical and virtual assetdiscovery.

Foundation for virtualizationBecause HP software collects comprehensive dataabout the servers deployed in its labs, it is alsopositioned to better manage those servers. Once youknow what you own, you can make judgments aboutwhy you own it and how you are using it, Wong

says. You can look at the age of your hardware, forexample, and determine whether you have an aginginfrastructure. This can help managers make betterbudget projections as they plan upcoming projectsand infrastructure upgrades. Each business unit withinHP reviews their equipment quarterly and plans whatthey need to purchase in the upcoming quarter,

Wong says. Today, our software lab managers canpull reports from Asset Manager. They quickly tellwhether they need new servers for planned projects.

HP is also now better positioned to negotiate pricingon servers it purchases from third partiesservers itneeds, for example, to develop software for non-HPplatforms. We can consolidate purchasing of thirdparty systems across the entire software business,

Wong notes.

Managers can also determine whether there mightbe servers in other shared labs. This becomes evenmore significant as HP embarks on the next step inits software lab consolidation: virtualization. As we

consolidate and upgrade our server infrastructure,the mix of systems will include a higher percentagof HP BladeSystem server blades, Wong says. Thwill likely include a mix of HP ProLiant BL460c andHP Integrity BL860c Server Blades to phase out soof the HP ProLiant DL360 systems in use in the labWell be virtualizing portions of our environment support faster provisioning and improve our abilityshare server resources both within labs and acrossthe enterprise.

Once virtualization is complete, for instance, newservers can be provisioned within a few hours,instead of taking days or weeks. Users can go toreservation system and request a server, and it widynamically allocated, Wong says.

And software labs will be able to share servers mfluidly. Server resources underutilized by one lab cbe offered virtually to others.

Having a more comprehensive view of its assets walso enable HP to more effectively identify serverslonger needed, Wong adds. It gives us a higher

of control. We can make better decisions about wto depreciate equipment, when to scrap it, and whto re-use it.

Were on a journey toward making our infrastrucmore efficient, productive, and cost-effective, Wosays. HP Asset Manager has proven an invaluabtool in that journey.

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Hp Asset Manager