HP plans smaller scale utility data center

Hewlett-Packard Co. is planning to deliver a slimmed-down version of its Utility Data Center (UDC) aimed at mid-sized businesses and departmental users, according to the head of the company's newly created Adaptive Enterprise Program Office. "We're looking at small footprint UDCs. Things that go at the departmental level," said Nora Denzel, who also serves as the senior vice president and general manager of HP's software group. "We don't have an all-in-one solution for the mid-market, and that's the one that we're going to build now." HP has prototypes of the departmental UDC running in-house and plans to introduce the smaller scale offering when UDC version 2.0 is announced later this year, said Nick van der Zweep, HP's director of utility computing in HP's enterprise systems group. The smaller UDC is expected to be released as a product some time in 2004, Denzel said.