Egenera’s extending its offerings around open converged infrastructure and unified computing, with the added support of HP’s BladeSystem for its PAN Manager Software.  The integration delivers Egenera’s most advanced PAN Manager release with HP’s top server blades, which are based on Intel Xeon multi-core processers and the Virtual Connect FlexFabric module.

“HP’s Virtual Connect manager has a pretty well-connected stack, and it’s well-defined,” Pete Manca, CEO of Egenera tells me.  “We integrated our PAN Manager with this, for close collaboration.”  It’s a matter of agility and broadened options for cloud computing clients, particularly when it comes to scaling server options while still keeping costs and complexities low.

“Businesses are dealing with IT sprawl and server virtualization has added a great deal of complexity to the data center. Service providers and enterprises are looking for a way to simplify the deployment and management of infrastructure required to support converged infrastructure,” said Manca.  “The Egenera PAN Manager for HP BladeSystem solution allows the customer to more easily deploy assets, systems and applications, making them all highly available and setting up for very simple disaster recovery.”

With this partnership Egenera’s working its way up the stack, marking strategic milestones for where its PAN Manager support lies.  Egenera already supports Dell and Fujitsu blade servers, representing about 15% of the market.  Tacking on support for HP expands that market by another 50%, with a more robust catalog, though Egnera is already integrated with HP’s OpenView, an out-of-the-box cloud solution.

It’s a big deal for Egenera, as it moves swiftly towards product expansion and client acquisition.  The added benefits that HP brings fit well with Egenera’s existing goals, presenting clients with the option to migrate from their proprietary solutions.  “With regards to how this fits in with our story, it’s a perfect match,” Manca continues.  “We want to be open and heterogenous, and we can’t do that without having the largest partner.”

Moving forward, Egenera’s looking to integrate even higher up the stack.  “Now we sit on top of hardware management,” Manca outlines.  “Above that are really great tools for orchestration and other things–this is kind of a walk-before-you-run story.  We’re perfecting tight integration, especially for mission-critical management.”