The data warehouse reference configurations’ define implementation best practices and designs for deploying data warehousing infrastructure.
The configurations are made up of hardware, software and services which are offered as part of HP’s BI portfolio and help users to configure HP’s line of Integrity and ProLiant servers and StorageWorks storage systems and management tools (System Insight Manager, Integrity/ProLiant Essentials and Business Technology Optimization) to support data warehousing and BI environments built on Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 database platform.
HP also offers a sizing tool that determines the optimal hardware configurations for its server and storage platforms to run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005’s Integration Services data integration engine.
The configurations are backed by services and support from HP and select Microsoft SQL Solution Elite partners.
The company plans to deliver a similar sizing capability for SQL Server 2005’s Analysis Services engine for OLAP analysis in the fall.
HP also said it is plans to launch a set of complementary services to help companies to transition over to the new Katmai release of Microsoft’s SQL Server database platform.
HP said it is working closely with both Microsoft and Intel to ensure its server and storage infrastructure works with the new database platform. In time it will also extend its initial set of reference configurations for Katmai.
Katmai is expected to ship sometime in 2008 and will tighten up integration with Microsoft’s Office 2007 front-end tools like Excel, 2007 and Excel Services and SharePoint Server and PerformancePoint Server 2007 platforms.
