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HP lowers entry point for Kittyhawks
9x9 Servers get lower licenses
By Ron Seybold
3000 News/Wire
HP quietly mentioned a change in pricing for its hottest
new HP 3000 systems at the latest Interex expo, the kind of
information that can get lost in a four-day event with the
CEO on hand. The Sept. 1 price change makes the newest
servers a more viable prospect for high-performance
applications which have few users. It will also expand the
happy problem at CSY this summer: demand for HP 3000
Kittyhawks that's running well ahead of supply.
Until this month, buying into the newest HP 3000 technology
meant licensing for 64 users or more. This caused little woe
with companies consolidating several 3000 systems into a
single unit, the initial target market for the 9x9 lineup.
However, buying the newest HP 3000 was at least an $84,580
investment before any credits or discounts. Disk, tape and
network connections ran the price up more.
Despite the entry price, customers have been buying 9x9s at
a stiff clip, as much for their expansion capabilities as for
their one-processor horsepower. Adding two processors to a
959KS - the model enabled for multiple processors with a
100-MHz chip - costs only about $15,000 per processor. Such
an upgrade has been easy for managers to justify when total
horsepower of such a box (a 959KS/300) increased by more than
150 percent.
In short, HP heard that some of its customers wanted to
start with a Kittyhawk HP 3000, rather than invest in other
systems without the processor upgrade advantage. This was a
harder sell when the lowest price point was close to $90,000
with peripherals and networking cards. HP hadn't anticipated
that the Kittyhawks would be an entry-level choice, but the
upgrade options were too attractive to keep some customers
from doing just that.
Upgrading from a single processor to as many as four was
far cheaper with the 9x9s than with any other multi-processor
choice previously available. VARs reported that the upgrade
savings was driving demand faster than HP had planned. In
August, Kittyhawks were in short supply, and HP's Commercial
Systems Division was ahead of quota for the year.
At the same time as HP was addressing its Kittyhawk supply
situation, it is moving to spark demand again with the lower
licenses. An 8-user configuration "Manufacturing might not
appreciate this, but our customers have been asking for the
new licenses," said HP's Andy Jolls. The marketing manager
noted that an IMAGE/SQL-ready 939KS server can be had for
under $50,000 now, before disks, console and networking cards
are added. This 8-user license, and its 20-, 32- and 40-user
cousins, "gives customers the chance to buy only the number
of licenses they need."
The real breakthrough with the new licensing is the
increased availability of the hot PA-7200 chip with a more
affordable cost point. Development environments are expected
to make good use of the new cost structure, as are VARs who
want to introduce MPE/iX applications at a departmental level
to companies not currently using HP 3000s.
HP wants to extend its new pricing structure to the 9x8
line, delivering licenses in quantities of 8, 20, 32 and 40
users for those systems as well. The new license fees might
make an even bigger impact on the low end of the HP 3000
line.
--
Ron Seybold
The 3000 News/Wire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP 3000
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