HP Exec: HP-UX Remains in Mission Critical Server Plans

There’s no denying the Unix market is in a steep decline. Still, don’t look to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to let go of HP-UX, its custom version of the Unix operating system, anytime soon, despite rolling out two new Intel (INTC) x86-based mission critical servers in a departure from its reliance on the Itanium platform.

“Clearly there are installed-base customers that want continuity of HP-UX,” Randy Meyer, HP Enterprise Server Business Mission Critical Systems president and general manager told IT News. “We’ve got a huge customer base we’ve got to [address].”

HP expects to deploy HP-UX on its Itanium-based mission critical systems possibly through 2025, Meyer said, despite the fact that Intel has moved its x86 architecture upstream with Xeon to high-end servers. Now, Itanium is found largely in HP’s servers running HP-UX, meaning the vendor still has server contracts deploying the platform to fulfill in key segments such as telecom and finance.

“It’s there for our customers that need it and want it,” Meyer said.

As part of its “new style of IT” campaign, HP last week added to its Compute portfolio the HP Integrity Superdome X, an x86-based machine positioned against Unix offerings as more cost effective, and the HP Integrity NonStop X, a model the vendor said is suitable for the “most stringent uptime SLAs.”

As of Q3 2014, HP still rules the server roost, although the market is flat at 1 percent year-over-year shipment growth amid sluggish demand, researcher Gartner said. While x86 servers grew 1.2 percent in units and 7.4 percent in revenue for the period, Itanium Unix servers shipments tumbled 17.1 percent globally with an 8 percent slide in vendor revenue, Gartner said.

HP posted $3.4 billion in server revenue to command 26.9 percent of the worldwide server revenue segment with about 570,000 units shipped for a 22.5 percent stake in Q3, according to the researcher’s figures.