Hewlett-Packard is helping businesses to answer an important two-part question: What do I have in my current data center, and do I need to ultimately migrate to a new data center? With those key points in mind, HP has launched version 2.0 of its Data Center Transformation (DCT) solutions. HP’s efforts could also help MSPs with their data center projects. HP Senior Product Marketing Manager Jimmy Augustine offered me some deeper insights on the DCT 2.0 launch.

“The first thing clients will ask is ‘What do I have in my data center,’” Augustine said. “It’s not about the 80 percent they know about. It’s about the 20 percent they don’t know about.”

For MSPs, there are two key HP software solutions worth noting. They are:

A Closer Look

The HP DDM solution is really the key here. It maps out a customer’s infrastructure to reveal how servers work together and which technologies they use. Augustine described the HP DDM as, “a spaghetti view of how things work in the data center that helps plan for a data center move and an application move.”

The DDM solution typically runs on a data center infrastructure for over a month to learn about all of the system’s dependencies. “When you understand dependencies you may realize that some dependencies are not that strong,” Augustine explained. “Then you understand the best way to make the data center move and you can go back and run an audit to make sure everything moved according to plan.”

Meanwhile, HP consultants use HP DDM Advanced Edition (DDMA) to reduce service disruptions during DCT projects.  Also, the HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB) — available via SaaS — gives customers an always-on solution to create and maintain a business-centric configuration management database.

Customers can complete the DCT project on their own and purchase an HP DMM license for either six or 12 months, or they can choose to let HP carry out the migration. Pricing is based on client requirements. We’re double-checking to see how partners can potentially leverage the HP tools and services.

HP is no stranger to data center management and managed services. In July 2010, HP enhanced the HP Service Manager 9.3. And in August 2011, HP partnered with Tasktop Technologies to develop a range of application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions.