HP has launched new Integrity servers, based on Intel’s 64bit Itanium processor and promising better control and virtualisation capabilities.

Nick van der Zweep, director of virtualisation for HP’s business-critical server division, insisted that new features in the servers coupled with HP’s commitment to spend $5bn over five years on the platform showed Itanium is advancing.

Van der Zweep said an upgrade to the Integrity servers’ HP-UX 11i operating system offers improved failover and management abilities, as well as sophisticated virtualisation functionality that could make it a compelling alternative to Risc and mainframe systems.

“The latest version [can] deliver HP’s Virtual Server Environment in half the time it took previously,” Van der Zweep said. “It can then automatically move resources from app to app and virtual machine to virtual machine, based on your service-level agreements.”

A new feature called Global Instant Capacity for HP-UX 11i can automatically move hardware and software licences between machines. “In the event of system failure or load-balancing work you don’t need extra licences for CPUs in a secondary device – you transfer them automatically,” said Van der Zweep.

HP’s latest Integrity servers are based on the Madison Itanium processor, rather than the delayed dual-core Montecito version. Manuel Martull, marketing manager for HP’s business-critical servers, said the new sx2000 chipset, formerly codenamed Arches, would still deliver 30 percent more workload capacity than previous Madison-based servers, and its modular design will allow firms to easily slot in Montecito when it arrives this year.

Greg Quick of analyst The 451 Group said, “The two-times improvement in performance of Montecito, as well as its lower power consumption, will be strong selling points. [HP has] refined its focus for Itanium and now sees it as a solid replacement technology for high-end Risc and mainframe systems.”

But Andy Butler of analyst Gartner said the delay to Montecito could prompt some firms to wait a few more months before upgrading. “It is not difficult to upgrade [to Montecito] but it’s not trivial either, so if you can, why not wait?” he asked.

However, he added that with Montecito expected in the middle of the year, some firms might deploy an Integrity system now with a few Madison processors to test and certify the servers, and then slot in Montecito processors when they arrive. Butler added that demand for Itanium has been reduced by 64bit Xeon and Opteron platforms, but that it still has “a significant high-end computing market to address”.