Anywhere On The Cloud

HP Service Anywhere, a new HP ITSM SaaS solution, can help enterprises deploy, manage and deliver quality service better and easier BY KTP Radhika

As a part of a major leap towards Cloud, Hewlett-Packard has announced a hosted offering on IT service management (ITSM) software. Christened Service Anywhere, the Cloud-based solution integrates key technologies such as the HP Universal Configuration Management Database applications and hardware across the IT environment. With the new software as a service (SaaS) model, HP is trying to grab more market share in services offered to enterprises customers. It also aims to woo in customers from the country’s vast and thriving small and medium enterprises (SME) sector.

HP Service Anywhere has been launched as part of the HP Converged Cloud strategy. “Cloud has become popular and has matured a lot. CIOs are getting used to it. So this is a right time for HP to deliver enterprise software  on Cloud,” said Kamal Dutta, Vice President, Business Units, Software, Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific and Japan. Earlier, the company had launched an application performance management solution – APM 360 – on the SaaS platform. However, it was a point-based solution and hence did not find high adoption rate in India. “ITSM is much bigger and larger. It is the heart and core of any IT organisation. It is a complicated software and has been referred as ERP for IT. So, there will be a huge market in India for Service Anywhere,” said Dutta.

SaaS Benefits

ITSM software is used to document and help troubleshoot problems that occur in IT systems. It is all about work-flow- based applications such as incident management, problem management, change management and application management. Generally, the ITSM frame work can take about 1-2 years for implementation in a typical large-size enterprise. The process involves a plethora of users and hardware so there has to be a lot of customisation done for the whole system. Also setting service-level agreements (SLA) and thresholds will take huge amount of time. Another challenge with the on premise solution is that enterprises themselves have to manage the storage, network etc. “By the time the enterprise has adopted the software, the new version would come in. Thus, mostly companies will be in the mode of implementation and deploying more hardware every time,” Dutta said.

According to Dutta, companies were preferring solutions that can be quickly deployed, simple to manage, and easy to configure. They were also worried about cost of maintaining an on-premise solution, cost of administration, scalability and wanted to simply upgrade it when new features come in. HP Service Anywhere enables clients to quickly resolve IT incidents and ensure availability of critical services that drive innovation. The new solution features an intuitive user interface and is simple to deploy, manage and upgrade, claims HP. George Flansburg, operations management practice lead, ResultsPositive, an HP partner, felt that the new hosted model is a simple-to-implement service desk, which allows both midsize and large customers to be up and running within weeks. Service Anywhere has social collaboration for users to record and share advice

and communications. It is a codeless configuration that enables companies to speed deployment and easily extend processes based on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices.

In a Cloud-based model, security has been a concern factor for companies. “We have given complete data isolation and separation for Service Anywhere. Also, other enterprise security standards been implemented in this and our services will be delivered from a world class datacentre. This also has adequate disaster proofing,” asserted Dutta. This hosted model lowers time and cost of implementation and provides easy manageability for enterprises compared to the on-premise model. This will provide high scalability so that SME customers can scale it according to their needs.

Clear Market

According to Dutta, enterprise customers who have been struggling with on premise solution for a long time can jump into the Cloud platform and quickly implement it. SME customers who want to configure ITSM solution, no longer want to invest immensely on hardware and can get quick into market with Service Anywhere. Dutta said, “Currently, there are some smaller companies who provide this solution through SaaS. However, HP has been selling on premise ITSM solution for the past 20 years and is one of the market leaders. We have got immense experience in implementing the solution in thousands of organisations worldwide. This helps us to run ahead in this competitive market.” According to terms, quantity and location, named and concurrent license pricing will vary. The company is planning to go to market with direct sales force as well as with partners. “Our partners will play a typical role in it,” opined Dutta. HP is planning to bring out more features to Service Anywhere in the next four months. The company is also planning to invest heavily on Cloud-based platforms in future. “This is the first big step towards it,” Dutta summed up.