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Perhaps in no other place is the earth’s internal energy on more
dramatic display than in the volcanic activity in and around Hawaii.
Yet, providing a daily supply of energy to the islands’ citizens
requires the Hawaiian Electric Company to coordinate the careful
management of natural resources, the maintenance of complex technology
systems, and the flawless delivery of a vital utility.
The right approach to IT helps drive broader business goals for the entire company.
Separated from the mainland and from one another, the
Hawaiian Islands cannot tie into other energy grids—each island must
maintain their own self-sufficient systems. The stakes are high when it
comes to providing this essential service. All aspects of the company’s
technology must be aligned for success. Hawaiian Electric has turned to
HP for sophisticated technology solutions as adaptable and reliable as
the businesses they support.
IT Aligns with Business goals
Hawaiian Electric and HP know that in the business of “keeping the
lights on,” it’s what customers don’t see that matters most. When a
switch is flipped, the flow of energy is expected to be immediate and
unfailing. Behind the scenes, this means arranging a wide variety of
complex interactions from the management of data, to rapid-response amid
weather emergencies, to identifying and correcting potential problems
before they occur. Hawaiian Electric has formed a close relationship
with HP over the past few years, utilizing not just its servers, but
also critical solutions that help the company monitor a variety of
different IT systems. With OpenView software, for example, Hawaiian
Electric has been able to consolidate software, hardware and
applications into one centralized monitoring console. This has allowed
the power company to improve compliance reporting and decision-making,
which helps to mitigate risk and accelerate business growth.
Reid Watanabe at Hawaiian Electric has stated, “HP provides us with our servers, some of our network components, our
storage integration components, our monitoring systems, and also some of
our desktop components. HP has a portfolio of products, system
integration expertise and support infrastructure to be a solution
provider that Hawaii Electric can depend on.”
Hawaiian Electric works closely with HP to provide a simple, seamless
experience to its customers. This relationship has led to the dramatic
streamlining of Hawaiian Electric’s management of IT, and has fostered a
flexible and scalable environment that is able to adapt to any situation
at hand, whether it be variable weather conditions, spikes in demand on
the grid or seasonal fluctuations in energy usage. The result is an IT
operation that helps achieve better business outcomes—from improved
utilization of resources to reduced costs and real-time response to
customer needs.
Customized Solutions for IT Needs
Les McCarter, who is the Director of Infrastructure and Operations at Hawaiian Electric has said, “I think what’s intriguing is our ability to work with the
various aspects of HP. HP seems to have a way to be able to partner
with us and help us fill out the location for the technology needs
that we have without overwhelming us with just a wealth of
possibilities. They actually come to us with solutions.”
Reid Watanabe, IT Architect, looks to HP for servers, as well as network storage, monitoring and desktop components.
One key business requirement is simultaneously attending to daily power
needs and to longer-term growth. Hawaiian Electric has recently begun
the process of moving off of its mainframe to a more modular solution
that includes right sized HP Unix servers, HP SAN storage and HP Blade
Servers. This approach is helping Hawaiian Electric to improve
operational efficiency so they can do their work today while planning
for tomorrow’s business growth.
With increasing population and economic development, the demands for
energy in Hawaii continue to grow. In this environment, IT is not simply
a business support; it’s a business driver. Similarly, HP is not merely
a technology company, but a full-spectrum business consultant,
collaborating on the enterprise-wide solutions that Hawaiian Electric
needs. It’s a relationship built on a dynamic, adaptive dialogue—together, HP and Hawaiian Electric are defining and developing the
solutions that light the future for the people of Hawaii.
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A More Energy-Efficient Data Center
HP provides practical, hands-on discussion of how to make a business data center more energy efficient.
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