HP opens doors on data warehouse platform

Hewlett Packard has thrown its hat into an already crowded ring of business intelligence (BI) vendors by launching an all-encompassing data warehousing (DW) solution.

Announced at a press conference in Berlin and in development for over two years, the Neoview platform is intended to help businesses mine their data, perform trend analysis and get better overall view of the state of the business. The PC-to-printer giant will offer Neoview as part of a total package of hardware, software and services as it attempts to tap into a market worth upwards of £25 billion.

The Neoview data warehousing solution is a combined hardware and software system offering high availability and scalable storage support, with HP supplying all the computing hardware, storage and software needed to implement and manage the data warehouse. The product also provides the possibility for some basic functionality straight out of the box, with the initial systems pre-installed and tested on the production line rather than having to be pieced together and software installed from scratch on-site.

"We supply everything that is in the box, from the code to the hard disks" said Greg Battas, chief technologist for business intelligence within HP's technology solutions group.

"The new release sees us taking our existing data warehousing and business intelligence products from just providing the infrastructure to delivering a complete solution" Battas added.

This is not the first time that HP has been actively involved in the BI market. For some time the company has offered tailored server hardware and teamed up with heavyweight software vendors such as SAP and Oracle. Neoview is based on the kernel of its non-stop computing software developed by Tandem, the computer company acquired by Compaq before it was swallowed up by HP.

The services side of the solution will come via specialist consultancy and IT services specialist Knightsbridge Solutions, which HP acquired last year, as well as through its existing services arm and third party relationships.

"Alongside the launch of the new version of Neoview, we are announcing a range of new support services to help customers plan for, implement and manage the quality of these data warehouses" Ann Livermore, worldwide manager of HP's technology solutions group. Services are responsible for an increasing percentage of HP's overall revenue, bringing in recurring revenues and longer-term investments in its products, on top of one-off hardware and software sales.

The business intelligence market, while already crowded, is set to be a major IT battleground with demand from users growing as they turn to BI to help improve business performance and reaction times. Also, software companies such as Oracle are consolidating the market and hardware manufacturers are trying to insulate themselves from falling margins on hardware and longer enterprise renewal cycles.

"There are plenty of challenges facing enterprise IT, but at the same time there is an increasing willingness to take IT seriously, and an appreciation of the value of IT to the business" said Will Cappelli, vice president of research at analyst firm Gartner.

"Over the next five years, IT departments will be tasked more and more with tacking business agility, and dealing with business intelligence and data warehousing forms a key part of that task."

Several leading BI and DW vendors have announced support and interoperability plans for HP Neoview, including Business Objects, Cognos, Informatica and SAS.

Ironically, the launch of Neoview DW platform will place HP in direct competition with data warehousing specialist Teradata, a company once run by current HP chief executive Mark Hurd.

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