HP provides tools and services to help SMBs survive and thrive in a mobile environment

HP today announced technology solutions and services, as well as financing and training programs that enable resource-challenged small and medium businesses (SMBs) to simplify IT, while enhancing collaboration in an increasingly mobile world.

As mobile devices, as well as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, continue to grow, organizations of all sizes are challenged by the need to access, manage and secure mobile devices and the data generated by them. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

According to Gartner research, by 2016, at least 50 percent of business email users will rely primarily on a tablet or mobile client instead of a traditional desktop. The trend to use devices to access email and other business data requires SMBs to prepare their infrastructures to support increased mobility.

"We've spent a lot of time working with our channel partners," said Lisa Wolfe, Worldwide Small and Medium Business lead for HP. "They're facing a fairly new set of IT challenges. Companies have a growing mobile workforce. These new solutions align to a bring-your-own-device world and are designed to help SMBs provide infrastructure to support a growing workforce."

New offerings

New HP solutions and services include:

• HP Client Virtualization SMB virtual desktop solution designed to improve security. The solution includes reference architectures -- such as HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) servers and client virtualization software from Citrix, Microsoft, or VMware -- that store user profiles and data on a centralized server. This enables secure access to applications from thin clients, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, while information remains on the server.
  
• HP Client Virtualization, Analysis and Modeling, a prepackaged service that analyzes the existing IT environment to simplify and speed deployment of virtualization for medium-size organizations.

  These new solutions align to a bring-your-own-device world and are designed to help SMBs provide infrastructure to support a growing workforce.

  
  
• HP Transformation Experience Workshop for Mobility, a service that aligns business and IT stakeholders to ensure employees have access to data while upholding security requirements.
  
• HP Business Protection Solutions, a preconfigured reference architectures based on HP Converged Infrastructure and best practices in data protection, network security, and disaster recovery. These customized solutions guide SMBs in the design of a risk-mitigation program to ensure continued accessibility to company data from a mobile device.

Collaboration tools

Also among the new offerings is HP Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) Solutions with Microsoft Lync, an integrated hardware and software solution that enables SMBs to securely video conference, share information on desktops, and collaborate to improve productivity. The comprehensive UC&C solution includes Microsoft Lync software, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, networking and ProLiant Gen8 servers, storage, and services.

HP has also announced new hardware offerings to facilitate building new wired and wireless networks. These include:

• HP Multi-Service Router (MSR) Series, an all-in-one, customizable platform that allows clients to streamline deployment of networks by integrating security and wired and wireless networking features into one device.

  They're facing a fairly new set of IT challenges

  
  
• HP 1910 8G Switch Series, which features energy-saving Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology to deliver simple, reliable and cost-effective network access for rich-media applications, such as voice and video.
  
• HP X5000 Storage, a highly available clustered network attached storage (NAS) platform that reduces IT administration time for SMBs by ensuring users have access to file data from their mobile devices.

Availability

The HP Client Virtualization SMB Reference Architecture for Microsoft VDI is scheduled to be available in September. All other solutions and services are available now through HP and worldwide channel partners.

To that end, HP is providing SMBs and channel partners with a broad range of programs to drive growth, create new revenue streams, and ensure collaboration. These include:

• HP Even Better Than Zero program, which allows companies to lease HP equipment at a less-than-zero implicit lease rate while offering a fair-market-value purchase option, available through HP Financial Services.
  
• HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE) e-Learning. The new cloud-based platform, hosted on HP Converged Cloud infrastructure, offers free information and courses to help SMBs establish or grow their businesses.

Additional information about HP’s new SMB offerings is available at http://www.hp.com/go/whatsnewforsmb.

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