Compaq becomes HP

Go to Compaq and you'll be given the big bum's rush over the new HP.

And on its front page you can read a very long letter full of the usual circumlocutions, and signed by Carly and Curly.

Meanwhile, the world awaits which products will live and which will go.

Terry Shannon, keen DEC, then Compaq and now HP watcher, has given us a few of his thoughts on how the cookies will crumble.

HPQ has promised us the Full Monty later on the day, and we expect suppliers, distributors and customers are chewing their nails a tad.

Here's what Terry S thinks:

High-level organizational appointments, as previously leaked by the press. Management mix will reflect Compaq and HP strengths respectively, probably >60 percent current HWP management and <40 percent CPQ management.

High-level product roadmaps

Alpha lives on thru EV7/EV79. Compaq AlphaServers will likely be called HP AlphaServers.

NonStop servers live on. Compaq NonStop servers will likely be called HP NonStop servers.

StorageWorks product set lives on, enhanced by high-end (and other) HP technology. Compaq's slick VersaStor and EVA technology should work well with HP's technology.

Services... ditto, of course. Probably the most easily-consolidated unit.

ProLiant lives on, very little change anticipated. Say goodnite to NetServers. ProLiant BL-Series seems to be a keeper. HP's Blade technology, being cPCI-based, seems a good fit with Telco.

(I expect a big push in telco, and note with interest an IBM pre-emptive announcement this day) Compaq's TeMIP and HP's telecom software should be a good fit.

Future big server: as PA8900 and Alpha EV79 fade, IPF (hopefully) well be ready to take up the burden. Hence the post-Marvel, post-SuperDome II, "Hyper-Dense Future Server" is likely to be an IPF-based system codeveloped by current Compaq HPS/ISSG and HP enterprise server teams

Software: OpenView will prosper. Compaq Insight Manager, Insight Agents, Adaptive Infrastructure software will be very complementary with OpenView.

PCs: Still speculative, but I suspect that Compaq Evo commercial PCs will live on. Presario likely to be phased out in favor of HP consumer PCs. µ

Terry Shannon is editor and publisher of Shannon knows HPC, which you can find here. µ