News release

Adapt Faster: HP Blade Servers Outperform IBM on Web, e-Mail, ERP Benchmarks

HP ProLiant Blade Servers First to Ship with Latest Xeon Processors; Market Share Lead Continues with New Customer Wins

In conjunction with today's Adaptive Enterprise strategy announcement, HP (NYSE:HPQ) unveiled new benchmarks, its latest ProLiant blade servers and a multitude of new customers using ProLiant blade server solutions designed to create a more adaptive infrastructure and drive down cost and complexity across their IT environments.

HP's next-generation ProLiant BL20p blade server is the first to deliver Intel® Xeon™ 3.06-GHz processors, complete with 533-MHz front-side bus. The updated BL20p blade server outperforms IBM's latest blade offering in each of three important benchmarks – Microsoft® Exchange 2000, SPECweb99_SSL and the SAP® Standard Application Sales and Distribution (SD) Benchmark. This builds on HP's commanding 49 percent worldwide unit share of the 2002 blade server market.⁽¹⁾

The new HP ProLiant BL blade server line exemplifies how HP technology can enable an Adaptive Enterprise based on industry standards, modularity, simplification and enterprise integration. The integration of ProLiant Essentials management software with HP's intelligent blade architecture and management features allows customers new levels of flexibility, efficiency and automated control. ProLiant BL architectures act like a mini-datacenter within a single rack, providing utility-like functionality and rapid deployment and re-provisioning of resources as demands change.

"Since the debut of our first ProLiant blade server in January 2002, HP has led the industry in blade server hardware, software and technology innovation," said Brad Anderson, vice president, HP Industry Standard Servers. "The market for blades is buzzing, and customers are already realizing new performance capabilities coupled with space and cost savings that can positively affect their bottom lines."

HP has recently won a host of new blade customers from various industries worldwide, including Archstone Communities, Delta Singular, Hostopia, New Balance Athletic Shoe, Scripps Clinic, Singapore Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and United Title Company.

"Deploying HP ProLiant BL10e servers allowed us to collapse our physical infrastructure and save on recurring costs," said Peter Bowman, chief information officer, United Title. "We combined HP blade servers, ProLiant Essentials software and HP Insight Manager together with Big-IP software from F5 Networks in order to accommodate the exponentially increasing traffic to

Closingpoint, our Web-centric e-business application. We've been really impressed with the results of HP's solution, which provides the flexibility and performance that we need."

HP ProLiant BL Servers Outperform IBM in Key Benchmarks

The next-generation HP ProLiant BL20p recently earned the top Microsoft Exchange 2000 Benchmark result for two-processor blade servers. The server supported 9,500 MMB2 (users), which is more than a nine percent increase in users over the previously published two-processor IBM BladeCenter HS20 result.⁽²⁾ MMB2 accurately reflects the increased workload seen by customers as they increasingly rely on messaging services deployed in today's heavy corporate e-mail environments.

Additionally, HP achieved a leading result for blade servers in the two-tier SAP Standard Application SD Benchmark, with 315 SAP SD Benchmark users and an average dialog response time of 1.97 seconds, surpassing IBM's blade result by 37 percent.⁽³⁾ The benchmark was run on a next-generation HP ProLiant BL20p server, running Windows® Server 2003 Enterprise Edition and SAP R/3® Release 4.6C.

The configuration consisted of two-way SMP, Intel Xeon DP 3.06 GHz, with 512 KB of L2 cache and 4 GB main memory. The achieved throughput was 31,670 fully business processed order line items per hour. The standardized and well-defined SAP benchmarking procedure helps to determine the optimal hardware configuration for customers' IT solutions.

HP also posted a SPECweb99_SSL score of 1,242 conforming connections for the next-generation ProLiant BL20p server, which is the leading benchmark for two-processor blade servers. This score measures performance for companies executing high volumes of secure transactions over the Internet. Working with Zeus, a leading provider of Web server infrastructure, this surpasses IBM's blade result by more than 43 percent.⁽⁴⁾ More information about HP's Zeus-based Secure Web Server

The HP Blade Server Portfolio The HP ProLiant BL blade server line is an excellent example of how HP is driving its Adaptive Enterprise strategy throughout HP and ProLiant technologies -- from servers and storage to management software -- to maximize return on IT investment. HP offers the industry's broadest portfolio of blade servers for front-end, mid-tier and back-end application deployments.

The portfolio offers an open strategy for networking and storage, spanning one-, two- and four-processor systems. This enables enterprise data centers, service providers and telecommunications companies to build a complete, multi-tiered adaptive infrastructure using blade servers.

Additional information about the HP blade server portfolio is available at http://www.hp.com/products/servers/platforms.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its acquisition of Compaq Computer Corporation on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

⁽¹⁾ According to IDC Q4 2002 Server Tracker, HP had 48.7 percent worldwide unit shipments for calendar year 2002.

⁽²⁾ The ProLiant BL20p G2 server, using two 3.06-GHz/512-KB processors and 4 GB of memory, achieved the two-processor result of 9,500 MMB2 (users) on the Exchange 2000 Messaging Benchmark. The IBM BladeCenter HS20 server, using two 2.4-GHz/512-KB Xeon processor DP and 4 GB of memory, achieved 8,700 MMB2.

⁽³⁾ In the two-tier SAP Standard Application SD Benchmark, IBM achieved 230 SAP SD Benchmark users and an average dialog response time of 1.98 seconds. The benchmark was run on an IBM BladeCenter HS20 server, running Windows Server 2003 and SAP R/3 Release 4.6C. The configuration consisted of 2-way SMP Intel Xeon DP 2.4-GHz, with 512 KB of L2 cache and 4 GB memory. The achieved throughput was 31,670 fully business processed order line items per hour.

⁽⁴⁾ The ProLiant BL20p G2 server, using two 3.06-GHz/512-KB processors and 8 GB of memory, achieved 1,242 conforming connections on the SPECweb99_SSL benchmark. The IBM HS20, using two 2.4-GHz/512-KB processors and 4 GB of memory achieved 870 conforming connections. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect results published on www.spec.org as of April 29, 2003. The comparison presented is based on the best performing two-processor blade servers currently shipping by HP and IBM. For the latest SPECweb99 benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/osg/web99ssl.

The Exchange 2000 benchmarks referred to in note 2 were certified by Microsoft and fully comply with the MMB2 specifications. Results referenced were current as of April 30, 2003. A list of all benchmark results is available at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/planning/2000/perfscal.asp.

The SAP benchmarks referred to in note 3 were certified by SAP AG and fully comply with the guidelines issued by the SAP Benchmark Council. Results referenced are current as of March 6, 2003. More information on SAP Standard Application Benchmarks is available at http://www.sap.com/benchmark.

Intel is a U.S. registered trademark and Xeon is a trademark of Intel Corp. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. SAP, R/3 and all other SAP product and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. SPEC and the benchmark name SPECweb are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation.