HP launches New Blade Technology to Save Millions in Data Center Costs

Mumbai, June 20, 2006 – HP today unveiled a breakthrough blade architecture that can save customers millions of dollars as they build out their data centers.^(1)

Three years in development, the HP BladeSystem c-Class leapfrogs the competition with innovations in virtualization, power and cooling, and system management capabilities that can reduce both operational and capital expenditure costs by 46 percent in a typical data center implementation.^(1) The c-Class server meets the demands of the Indian CIO’s -both big and small enterprises across industry sectors.

The launch of HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio is a key delivery against HP’s Adaptive Infrastructure offering, which helps customers move toward automated, “lights-out” computing environments that lower the cost of IT operations and deliver a higher quality of service, improve performance and increase agility

New blade architecture delivers the future of business computing- Rethinking approaches to today’s most pressing data center challenges, HP has focused its HP BladeSystem innovations in three key areas: virtualization, power and cooling, and system management.

“HP is pioneering the effort to offer more flexibility and choice to customers to succeed in today’s the dynamic marketplace. The new HP BladeSystem c-Class architecture is a bold, modular design that integrates the essential components of the next generation data center inside one, consolidated building block of infrastructure,” observed Rajesh Dhar, Country Manager, Industry Standard Systems, HP India. “With the new design, an average enterprise data center can realize over a three-year period: system acquisition cost savings of up to 41 percent; data center facilities cost savings of up to 60 percent; and initial system setup time cost savings of up to 96 percent^(1) “.

New c-Class server blades include the HP ProLiant BL460c and BL480c. The BL480c is the first blade server of its kind, matching the features of the HP ProLiant DL380 – the world’s best-selling server – with support for the widest variety of applications on blades. Both the BL460c and BL480c have more than two times the memory, hot-plug drives and I/O expansion capabilities.

“The HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio leverages the best technologies across HP and brings them together to fundamentally improve how our customers buy, build, manage and use their computing resources,” said Mr. Pallab Talukdar, Director, Marketing and Alliances, HP India. “By implementing a simple, ‘out-of-the-box’ design, customers can
dramatically reduce the biggest IT cost drivers and barriers to change in today’s racked, stacked and wired data centers.”

New and enhanced HP services supporting c-Class include HP Enhanced Network Installation and Startup Service for HP BladeSystem Switches and a new HP Care Pack service offering. The latter provides advanced configuration and testing of HP BladeSystem network interconnect devices to enhance the performance, scalability and reliability of the data center network. More information about HP Services for c-Class is available at
http://www.hp.com/services/bladesystemservices

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2006, HP revenue totaled $88.9 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/

^ (1) Based on an HP study of 320 servers over a three-year period. Actual cost savings is $2,603,453. Savings include costs for initial system acquisition, power and cooling costs, cable reduction and installation, Ethernet and Fibre Channel switch costs, integration of systems into data center racks, rack reduction, and benefits from infrastructure control software. Results may not be typical.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the achievement of expected results and other risks that are described from time to time in HP’s Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the risks described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2006, and other reports filed after HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.