HP Disaster Proof Video Questions and Answers

Are you seriously blowing up equipment, and is this a typical test method HP uses for testing the high availability and disaster tolerant capabilities?

“Disaster Proof” was a cross product line demonstration of HP’s Disaster Tolerant and Continuous Computing solution, a critical part of our Business Continuity & Availability Solutions. There is no better way to present HP’s mainframe-level disaster tolerant capabilities than with a real demonstration. The physical demonstration was staged in Arkansas in mid-May 2007, and was video taped and edited by a professional crew. It literally entailed  blowing up a cluster of systems (virtually the entire spectrum of HP products, including the substantially lower priced, standards-based systems and storage arrays), which were all running real applications used by simulated users to prove fail-over would not cause business disruption.

This demonstration supports our Business Continuity and Availability (BC&A) initiatives, and features products and technology from HP Business Critical Systems (BCS), HP StorageWorks Division (SWD), and Industry Standard Servers (ISS) groups.

How did you do it? What types of explosives were used?

The “Disaster Proof” project simulated what would happen if a gas leak resulted in an explosion that destroyed a data center.

To simulate this test, National Technical Systems (NTS) used approximately 70 pounds of C4 explosives. All charges were tied together with detonating cord and placed inside each rack to maximize damage. A single Exploding Bridge wire detonator was used to start the explosive train. Extreme care was taken to isolate each charge from the local power used to operate the racks.

Despite the loss of the production data center, we showed how the business continued at the recovery site with HP disaster-tolerant offerings running on HP Integrity servers, HP Integrity NonStop servers, ProCurve Networking by HP and HP ProLiant servers. We demonstrated that IT services continued to be available for all of our operating system environments— HP-UX, Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, NonStop OS, and OpenVMS. Applications continued to run and were accessible, transactions in process were protected and captured, and end users were totally unaware that systems were down in this Disaster Proof demo.

For more details, refer to the white papers on the Disaster Proof video website at  http://www.hp.com/go/DisasterProof

You’ve got to be kidding. Isn't blowing up expensive equipment an extreme way of making your point?  Why is HP doing this, now?

Frankly, we know that many are tired of the industry’s fancy talk, questionable promises and baffling array of technology. What HP is demonstrating are practical solutions, available now, to address very real business threats.

The overall “Disaster Proof” demonstration builds on the original “XP Bulletproof” video in which the HP StorageWorks Division shot a hole through an active HP StorageWorks XP12000 Disk Array to show the data was fully protected. The “Bulletproof” event was captured on video and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times, not only on hp.com, but also on popular internet video Web sites. We also wanted to dramatically demonstrate the high availability and disaster tolerant capabilities of HP Business Continuity and Availability solutions in a high-impact video.

Why was Camden, Arkansas chosen as the location/stage for the Disaster Proof demo?

The National Technical Systems (NTS) Ballistic Test Center is located in Camden, Arkansas and specializes in ordnance, munitions and environmental testing. They are equipped to conduct a wide array of testing on weapon systems, ordnance, rocket motors, hazardous materials and commercial products. One of the most complete ordnance test facilities in the country, NTS was developed to satisfy the weapons industry’s manufacturing and testing needs. Camden has multiple small, medium and large caliber test ranges, with each fully instrumented with fiber-optic cabling to acquire a wide variety of digital data.

The NTS Ballistic Test Center was used by HP in February of 2006 to conduct the HP StorageWorks XP12000 Disk Array “Bulletproof” demonstration. NTS’s high-tech equipment, facilities and expertise were instrumental for the test. HP once again chose NTS to conduct the “Disaster Proof” experiment based upon their reputation, capabilities and our previous experience with this organization.

NTS is the nation's largest independent standards compliance and product testing company serving companies within the aerospace, defense, automotive, telecommunications, electronics, power, medical device, computer, software and financial markets. NTS is globally accredited by leading regulatory agencies. For more information on NTS in Camden, Arkansas, visit http://www.ntscorp.com/about/locations/camden/index.html.

Isn't the location of your recovery site too close to the main site?

Other vendors claim their solutions are also disaster proof. What’s the HP story?

One of the goals of this demonstration is to show that HP can provide all the hardware, software and services needed to design disaster tolerant solutions. HP offers the ability to provide a complete disaster tolerant solution, providing end-to-end support to meet your high availability and disaster tolerant needs. The support ranges from working with you to define the business continuity and availability requirements, into the consulting and design stages through implementation, testing, and on-going operational support. It includes HP software for managing and operating the environment, and operational IT Service of your operating system environment and technology choices.

HP’s approach to BC&A is comprehensive and embraces business continuity, availability management, data protection and disaster tolerant solutions with:

• Breadth and completeness of operating systems that can be supported in a high availability heterogeneous environment – HP-UX, Windows, Linux, NonStop and OpenVMS.
• A collaborative approach with customers to ensure their business needs and requirements are well understood.
• Flexibility in making technology choices that meet customer’s business needs and satisfy their technology preferences.
• Ability to consolidate multiple operating systems into a single system environment, and failover the entire consolidated environment, if and when disaster strikes.
• End-to-end disaster tolerant solutions support.

Are any customers really using Linux for mission critical applications that require disaster tolerant solutions?

We’re glad you asked. In fact, The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) of Switzerland oversees the country’s preparation, monitoring and response to a wide range of natural and manmade crises – including floods, earthquakes, and nuclear, biological and chemical threats. The agency must be able to physically accommodate frequent and rapid increases in staff during training and crises. In addition, NEOC must be able to stay in constant communication with each of Switzerland’s 26 cantons (states) and several technical services, such as the Swiss Seismological Institute.

So, can HP support failover of operating system environments for servers that HP does not sell?

How did you get such great results: were these real customer scenarios or set up specifically for the event?

We designed the data center in the Disaster Proof video based on our experience with how customers design and use their data centers. Wherever possible, standard products and automation techniques expedited system responses. In essence, you are watching many of our best practices in motion.

I noticed that your demonstration did not include Windows on HP ProLiant servers. Why not?

Why didn’t HP use a BladeSystem c-Class server blade in Disaster Proof if you are trying to highlight IT Consolidation?

The HP BladeSystem c-Class infrastructure is an ideal environment for customers who demand cost-effective, reliable and scalable consolidation solutions for larger footprint, legacy server environments, applications and storage—all critical aspects of a disaster plan for businesses of all sizes. Customers can deploy Windows, Linux, OpenVMS and HP-UX operating systems within this infrastructure, plus deploy storage blades, which truly makes it the floor plan for the next-generation data center delivered in a 17-inch box.

I saw a HP Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management Software screen on the video that showed all the storage environment components. What does HP Storage Essentials SRM Software do?

Oh, what’s with the goldfish? Are they the same fish from the “Bulletproof” video?

Do HP engineers really wear those white coats?

Where can I go to learn more about HP High Availability and Disaster Tolerant Solutions?