HP Unveils Hosted Desktop as Part of Converged Systems Push

HP has been on a tear over the last year or so (probably longer). No longer satisfied to sit on the sidelines, HP has put innovation to work and has begun to develop a long-term company strategy around the Cloud and "Converged" Systems.

Converged Systems is a methodology that marries hardware and software into a package-complete offering optimized for virtualization, Cloud, and Big Data. It also provides a single solution that can be utilized by organizations to engage in public, private, or hybrid Cloud implementations.

Announced at HP Discover 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, HP introduced several new solutions, including a desktop-hosting solution based on the company's Moonshot microserver technology. Moonshot technology solutions are low power servers that share management, power, cooling, networking, and storage. This architecture is key to achieving 8x efficiency at scale, and enabling 3x faster innovation cycle. Moonshot makes HP's desktop-hosting solution are perfect fit for many organizations seeking to lower TCO and power costs for managed desktops. Each remote user receives dedicated computer and graphics processing. One server can support up to 180 computers running Windows 8 or Windows 7.

The desktop-hosting solution is an interesting and timely announcement. Amazon recently announced their own Cloud desktop computing solution called Amazon Workspaces. However, Amazon is geared toward a Cloud solution that is entirely public-based and hosted in their own datacenters. Customers are steadily implementing Cloud services for their organizations, however, they are actively selecting a Private Cloud model, not a Public one. Amazon misses the point. HP doesn't.

Utilizing the Converged Systems model makes HP's announcement more unique and more valuable than Amazon's. Instead of forcing customers into a Public Cloud silo, HP allows customers to make the decisions that are best for the overall needs and requirements of the business.

If you are interested in learning more about the new hosted desktop offering, Chris Samper, Senior Product Marketing Manager at HP, will be delivering a session called Moonshot-hosted desktop infrastructure: an innovative way for hosting end-user desktops on December 11, 2013 at 11:30 AM CET.