HP upbeat on local IT potential, explores new initiatives

Tuesday, 9 July 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Looking at Sri Lanka as hub to service other countries in AEC region
Launches world’s first software defined web server, the Moonshot
Offers complete spectrum of cloud solutions to local companies

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Bullish over the potential witnessed in Sri Lanka, Hawlett-Packard (HP) officials expressed last week that, given the recent growth in the IT sphere, it is looking for new initiatives in the country. Sri Lanka hosted the HP Annual Partners Conference 2013 for the Asia Emerging Countries (AEC) and Pakistan this year and visiting HP officials noted that they were looking at further building IT in the local community. Speaking at a press conference soon after the two-day annual conference held in Colombo was brought to a close, HP Managing Director Enterprise Group AEC and Pakistan Vijay Balan said that the US$ 120 billion IT company was exploring avenues to develop expertise in Sri Lanka.

“More from a software development perspective, the key initiative the HP management is looking for is to make Sri Lanka as a hub to service other countries in the AEC region,” shared Balan. He noted that this decision was made since HP finds Sri Lanka to be strategically poised. “We have a lot of access to emerging countries from here and we see a positive impact to build a key team in the country because it is much more cost effective for us as of now,” justified Balan. While additional human resources will be required to implement the initiative, HP stated that it would soon be implementing a management trainee program in the country where fresh graduates would be given an opportunity to be a part of the HP team. Having acknowledged the IT penetration rate in Sri Lanka, Balan revealed that HP had launched two of its latest technologies in Sri Lanka last week. The first is the Moonshot system, which is the latest addition to HP’s portfolio. The Moonshot is the world’s first software defined web server that will help corporations bring down operation cost by 30%. Flaunting the features of this innovating product that was launched in the USA only last month, HP Networking Asia Pacific and Japan Nathan Tallack pointed out that Moonshot was a huge leap forward in infrastructure design that addresses speed, scale, and specialisation needed for IT. He said the Moonshot web server, which is one tenth the size of a traditional server, was designed and tailored for specific workloads to deliver optimum performance. The second technology launched by HP is a complete spectrum of cloud solutions to local companies. Offering both internal and external cloud solutions, HP Enterprise Business Sri Lanka and Maldives Country Manager Shiran Perera said that Sri Lanka is yet to properly implement the cloud solution. However, he observed that there are multiple companies, especially telecom providers who are working towards embracing this technology. “Adaptation of cloud in this part of the world started only about three to four ago. HP having about 1,000 installations in the Asia Pacific, we are looking at promoting this in Sri Lanka now,” he said. HP Enterprise Group Sales Manager for HP cloud Solutions Asia Pacific and Japan Anoop Kumar Bhat said there was huge potential for cloud in Sri Lanka. Pointing out that HP has a strong partner community in the country, he said: “We are enabling all the partners so they will be ready to deploy cloud technology. We want to replicate in Sri Lanka the model used in China and Japan where partners are the one delivering the solution.” On that note, Bhat said that HP was looking for channel and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sri Lanka to extend its wide-ranging cloud solution.