The UpStream

Lorenzo Gonzales is a Business Consultant for HP Technology Services. assists customers with real world environments which are by definition hybrid environments: Cloud services when appropriate and traditional environments with critical core processes.

Many clients are aware of "Shadow IT", but do not understand the scope of the problem - how many portions of the enterprise are bypassing official IT solutions. The role of IT has to move towards an internal consultative approach.

Mobile devices present a special challenge, in that "Bring Your Own Device" is a fact, not reachable by simple policy decrees to "not to use". Often employees have superior technology in their homes and will not accept a technology downgrade in their work.

Networking dependencies are a critical piece of the infrastructure that are often neglected, and the plan must include evolution of devices, storage and flexible communications to support essential services

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.

Developer Experience Manager Pete Johnson provided a demonstration of the public cloud interface during one of the keynote presentations at HP Discover 2012.

The Public cloud services provided by HP is based on the OpenStack community, allowing you the flexibility to change services to another OpenStack provider in the future.

HP's experience in building data centers - enabling customers to bring processes back into a private cloud as needed - yet offer major CAPEX savings during periods of peak load for only a few days.

HP also has a number of public beta offerings, including CDN partnering with Akamai for media delivery.

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.

Converged Systems are especially interesting to customers because it enables them to increase responsiveness and help the line of business. Mobility, Cloud and Big data all need a modern converged infrastructure. HP provides specific entry points in mobility to connect, converge and control - offering authentication at the application level as well as the device level.

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.

Calvin Zito is Storage Blogger & Social Media Strategist at HP. In this role, he manages all aspects of Social Media for HP Storage including but not limited to blogging, Twitter, and communities like LinkedIn.In this interview, we look at the history of social media at HP - and trace the involvement of HP product specialists and customers in blogging and new media.

Calvin also introduces a guest blogger, Brian Knudtson of Vital Support Systems, who gives some of his impressions of his first time visit to HP Discover.

Brian has been in the VMware world for a number of years. What started as a notebook of tips for personal use has evolved into a blog site that is referenced by system administrators and users worldwide. At Vital Support Systems, Brian provides engineering support for systems sales staff, help drive new business, and provides technical advice to customers and architect solutions for a wide variety of customer needs.

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.

Lee specializes in developing cloud vision, and plan the transformation with customers.

While IT traditionally has been spending time in optimization, employing point technologies to drive out cost. Cloud computing requires a holistic view of infrastructure, applications, and operations.

Lee talks about the process used by HP, over a 12-14 week examination of the overall IT strategy for clients. Lee notes that companies that have invested strategically in bringing in experts to help with the development of a comprehensive strategy see the benefits in agility and savings from cloud based systems. Those who are thinking about cloud but are not investing in third party assistance may not be aware of the best practices that successful companies.

The workshop and consulting engagements are tools based, allowing consistent delivery of the service globally. Future state definition, baseline and gap analysis, culminating in development of a specific plan to bridge those gaps and set a plan to go forward.

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.

Diversified Agency Services (DAS), a division of Omnicom Group Inc., manages Omnicom's holdings in a variety of marketing disciplines, including customer relationship management, public relations and specialty communications. DAS includes more than 190 companies, which operate through a combination of networks and regional organizations, serving international and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

DAS CIO Jason S. Cohen outlined some of the challenges that HP faces in a large consolidation project.

With offices all over the world, DAS has many offices - and they have to be able to provide data and technology anywhere in the world for their clients, providing PR, Marketing and CRM services. Cost savings is a side benefit to the consistent quality and level of service that they are able to provide.

Jerry Kelly is the North American CIO for DAS : During the interview, he emphasized the change management portion of the strategy and use of HP 3PAR, Tipping Point, and the HP Server line. In the evaluation of various competing products, a clear vision of the HP Partnership emerged. Virtual network technology allowed DAS to address agency concerns on the security of agency data - shared IP space yet logically separate .

Roz Reich - Director of Communications at Consolidated Data Services emphasized the need to communicate among various stakeholders, emphasizing clear advantages that the consolidation will bring, and listening to agency concerns. Newsletters, websites, conference calls and in person meetings were essential tools that were deployed.

The video interview from the HP Discover 2012 event by the SDR News team is available after the break.