Competitive Brief Remote Support Competitive Overview April 2014 HP Restricted for HP and Channel Partner Internal Use Only Executive Summary HP remote support and HP Insight Online help customers and partners "do more with less." HP s remote support solution continuously monitors environments, providing alerts and creating cases when a problem occurs, with up to 66% faster problem resolution and up to 97% First Time Fix rate. HP Insight Online, a comprehensive cloudbased, IT management and support portal displays all devices remotely monitored by HP remote support (Insight Remote Support 7.x and Insight Online direct connect). It allows customers and HP Authorized Channel Partners to easily track service events and related support cases, view device configurations and proactively monitor HP contracts and warranties from anywhere and anytime. Competitors lack key features and capabilities with their remote support solutions. Key Takeaways: HP leads with a simple, cloud-based, personalized online dashboard, including IT asset health status HP leads with agentless remote support with direct connect capability, providing a cost effective approach for SMB customers and those with remote sites HP leads with comprehensive online warranty and contract tracking and management HP leads by providing a rich onsite portal experience without requiring integration with a systems management tool as is required by Dell and as is needed by IBM and Oracle in order to match the feature set provided by HP Insight Remote Support V7.0.5 and later. Competitive positioning Competitive Mapping HP vs. Dell, Cisco, IBM and Oracle 1
Let s look at how HP s remote support solution compares to remote support solutions offered by Dell, Cisco, IBM and Oracle. HP remote support and Insight Online HP has integrated an online, personalized dashboard (HP Insight Online) with 24x7 remote support technology, such as Insight Online direct connect for HP ProLiant Gen8 and later servers with ilo4 and Insight Remote Support v7 software for the converged infrastructure of servers, storage and networking. HP remote support offers 24x7 remote monitoring, provides automatic notifications, accurate diagnosis and faster problem resolution for hardware issues. HP Insight Online, the industry s first comprehensive cloud-based, IT management and support portal, aggregates all system health, asset, contract and warranty information, service events and support cases as well as HP Proactive service credit balances, and secures it in a personalized dashboard, accessible anywhere, anytime and from any device. Benefits: Save time Continuously monitoring the environment, HP remote support alerts and provides up to 66% faster problem resolution 1 and up to 97% First Time Fix rate 2. Use HP Insight Online for more efficient contract, warranty, case and service credit management. Up to 90% less time spent tracking contract and warranty status 3 because HP does it for you! Access HP Insight Online anywhere, anytime and share key information with colleagues and HP partners. Decrease Costs HP Insight Online and HP remote support tools deliver 24x7 remote monitoring, automated case creation and parts replacement which results in a 50% service call reduction 1. Reduce Risk Automated support and improved management of IT infrastructure support status allow customers to: Fix problems faster Enjoy 66% less unplanned downtime 1 Have 43% fewer unplanned downtime incidents 1 Dell remote support Dell s remote support software is called Dell SupportAssist. Dell SupportAssist was released in October 2012 and replaces the prior remote support software tool, Dell Proactive Systems Management. Dell SupportAssist integrates with Dell s systems management solution, OpenManage Essentials, to enable proactive support capabilities; automatic support case creation, log, diagnostic and configuration collection, and proactive parts dispatch. Management of monitored devices is done using the Dell OpenManage Essentials console. Dell SupportAssist is available on select servers, storage and networking equipment covered under a Dell ProSupport contract. Dell SupportAssist is a customer-only solution. Dell also provides operating system independent, embedded remote support and management in Dell PowerEdge servers using the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (idrac) with Lifecycle Controller. 2
Competitive positioning: Dell Dell SupportAssist requires integration with Dell s systems management solution to enable proactive support capabilities. HP Insight Remote Support V7 can be optionally integrated with HP Systems Insight Manager or HP OneView and HP Insight Online to offer a flexible approach based on the environment being monitored. Dell SupportAssist will monitor devices under warranty, but requires the purchase of a ProSupport contract to enable automatic support case creation and proactive parts dispatch. HP remote support provides these capabilities for free under contract or warranty. Dell SupportAssist does not offer a cloud-based portal. Management of monitored devices is done using the Dell OpenManage Essentials console. HP offers both a local management console as well as the cloud-based HP Insight Online portal. HP Insight Online customers can remotely monitor device health, hardware events, support cases, manage contract and warranty information and create reports, plus easily share some or all of the information with colleagues and partners. While both HP and Dell provide embedded agentless technology for their latest generation servers, HP is the only vendor that provides agentless remote support with direct connect capability. Cisco Smart Call Home Cisco Smart Call Home is a remote support feature that is embedded in the operating system of call-home capable devices. Smart Call Home enables these devices to perform proactive diagnostics on their own components to provide real-time alerts and remediation advice when an issue is detected. Smart Call Home is available on select server and networking devices covered by a SMARTnet Service, SP Base, Unified Computing Support Service, or Mission Critical Support Service contract. Cisco offers onsite as well as cloud-based management capabilities. Cisco Smart Call Home is the underlying remote support technology offered by Cisco for both customers and partners. Competitive positioning: Cisco Cisco Smart Call Home is available for select servers and networking devices and relies on the use of operating system agents. HP remote support provides more comprehensive product coverage supporting HP servers, storage, and networking and provides embedded agentless technology for all Gen8 and future servers with ilo4. Cisco Smart Call Home will monitor devices under warranty, but requires an active Cisco support service for automatic support case creation. HP remote support provides this capability for free under contract or warranty. Onsite management capabilities o Cisco Smart Call Home does not offer a way to discover and verify readiness of devices within the environment as provided by HP Insight Remote Support s Monitored Device Setup Wizard. o Cisco Smart Call Home does not offer a single graphical user interface (GUI) to configure and manage devices locally as is done with Insight Remote Support. To have a comprehensive view of all devices configured with Smart Call Home, you must access the cloud-based web portal. Cloud-based management capabilities o o o Cisco s Smart Call Home web portal is not integrated with the Cisco support portal, but a completely separate portal that requires login. HP Insight Online is a cloud-based infrastructure management and support portal available through the HP Support Center, providing an integrated support experience. Cisco s Smart Call Home portal uses a text driven, reporting interface that lacks key features such as device health or the ability to highlight contracts about to expire. HP Insight Online offers a differentiated customer experience by providing a user-friendly dashboard showing a comprehensive view of all devices and device health, system events and allows proactive monitoring of HP contracts and warranties. 3
IBM Electronic Service Agent IBM Electronic Service Agent is a monitoring tool that proactively reports hardware events. For proprietary operating systems the IBM Electronic Service Agent is native, or embedded in the operating system. Other operating systems require that you download and install an operating system agent. IBM Electronic Service Agent is free for select servers under contract or warranty, and also supports the DS8000 series of storage systems. Customers can use an onsite management console, or cloud-based management capabilities integrated in the IBM support portal, to manage monitored devices and view service information sent to IBM support by Electronic Service Agent. IBM Electronic Service Agent is the underlying remote support technology offered by IBM for both customers and partners. While both HP and IBM offer remote support with direct connect capability, HP is the only vendor that provides agentless remote support with direct connect capability. IBM requires the use of operating system agents. With the sale of IBM s x86 server business to Lenovo, it appears that IBM will continue to support these systems with the current IBM tools and IBM support services in place today. Competitive positioning: IBM IBM Electronic Service Agent is available for select servers and storage and relies on the use of operating system agents. HP Insight Remote Support provides more comprehensive product coverage supporting HP servers, storage, and networking and provides embedded agentless technology for all Gen8 and later servers with ilo4. IBM Electronic Service Agent lacks key features offered by Insight Remote Support including event monitoring and simplified contract and warranty lookup. Integration with IBM s systems management tool, IBM Systems Director, is required to access these features onsite. IBM s Electronic Service Agent s cloud-based management capabilities are integrated into the IBM support portal, although IBM Electronic Service Agent features within the IBM support portal are not part of a consolidated My IT or My Customers view as is done with HP Insight Online. Rather, the IBM support home page is the landing page for post-sales support capabilities including the various Electronic Service Agent features scattered throughout the site. IBM s support portal uses a text driven, reporting interface that lacks key features such as device health and simplified contract and warranty lookup. HP Insight Online offers a differentiated customer experience by providing a user-friendly dashboard showing a comprehensive view of all devices and device health, system events and contract/warranty status with easy navigation to more details. IBM s direct connect capability requires the use of operating system agents. HP is the only vendor that provides agentless remote support with direct connect capability. Oracle Auto Service Request Oracle Auto Service Request is a support feature that provides automatic service request generation for select Oracle server, storage, Exadata and Exalogic systems when specific hardware faults occur. Oracle Auto Service Request is available with Oracle and Sun hardware warranty and Oracle Premier Support for Systems. Note that automatic support case creation and parts dispatch are only available with an Oracle Premier Support contract. Oracle Auto Service Request is not agentless and requires that customers download and install software on every device that they want to create service requests for. 4
Oracle Auto Service Request provides an onsite management console using the Auto Service Request (ASR) Manager. It also provides cloud-based management capabilities integrated in the My Oracle Support portal. Customers and partners use My Oracle Support to activate Auto Service Request assets. The portal can also be used to view devices, view and update Service Requests and deactivate devices. Oracle Auto Service Request is used by both customers and partners. Oracle Auto Service Request does not provide direct connect capabilities as all Oracle ASR assets must route data to an ASR Manager. The ASR Manager filters the incoming data and forwards potential fault telemetry to Oracle/ASR Backend systems. Competitive positioning: Oracle While Oracle Auto Service Request can be used to monitor specific ASR enabled devices and will open Service Requests when faults are detected, Oracle clearly states that this tool is not a monitoring solution. Auto Service request cannot be used to monitor the environment as this tool does not provide a console portal, nor does it include any monitoring capabilities in the Oracle support portal. For a complete monitoring and management solution, Oracle suggests implementing the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center which requires an Oracle Premier Support service contract. Compare this to HP Insight Remote Support which provides the ability to monitor the environment, filter and send event notifications, amongst other capabilities at no additional cost. Oracle Auto Service Request is available for select servers and storage. HP Insight Remote Support provides more comprehensive product coverage supporting HP servers, storage, and networking and provides embedded agentless technology for all Gen8 and later servers with ilo4. Oracle Auto Service Request will monitor devices under warranty, but requires an Oracle Premier Support contract for automatic support case creation. HP remote support provides this capability free under contract or warranty. Oracle Auto Service Request and HP Insight Online offer cloud-based management capabilities that are integrated into the support portal, but Auto Service Request capabilities within the portal are limited to viewing, activating, and deactivating Auto Service Request enabled devices, as well as viewing and updating service requests. HP Insight Online provides a full range of features including the ability to monitor device health, track service events, monitor HP contracts and warranties and generate reports. Oracle Auto Service Request does not provide direct connect capabilities as all Oracle ASR assets must route data to an ASR Manager. HP is the only vendor that provides agentless remote support with direct connect capability. Bottom Line HP leads the competition with its remote support and Insight Online capabilities. Competitors lack key features and capabilities with their remote support solutions. Dell, Cisco and Oracle monitor devices under warranty, but require that devices be covered under contract for automatic support case creation. HP remote support provides this capability free under contract or warranty. In addition, Dell SupportAssist does not offer a cloud-based portal. HP remote support offers both a local management console as well as the cloud-based HP Insight Online portal where customers and HP Authorized Channel Partners can remotely monitor device health, hardware events, support cases, manage contract and warranty information and create reports. Cisco Smart Call Home lacks key onsite management capabilities such as the ability to discover and verify readiness of devices within the environment as is provided by HP Insight Remote Support s Monitored Device Setup Wizard. In addition, Smart Call Home does not offer a single graphical user interface (GUI) to configure and manage devices locally as is done with Insight Remote Support. IBM Electronic Service Agent lacks key features offered by Insight Remote Support including event monitoring and simplified contract and warranty lookup. Integration with IBM s systems management 5
tool, IBM Systems Director, is required to access these features onsite. In contrast, HP Insight Remote Support V7 can be optionally integrated with HP Systems Insight Manager or HP OneView and HP Insight Online to offer a flexible approach based on the environment being monitored. Oracle Auto Service request cannot be used to monitor the environment as this tool does not provide a console portal, nor does it include any monitoring capabilities in the Oracle support portal. Compare this to HP Insight Remote Support which provides the ability to monitor the environment, filter and send event notifications, amongst other capabilities at no additional cost. No competitor can match HP s comprehensive cloud-based, IT management and support portal powered by HP remote support. More info: Remote Support Competitive Overview http://intranet.hp.com/tsg/ww2/hpcompetition/other/pages/tscompetitive.aspx#other 1 The Business Value of the HP Proactive Insight Experience, Doc# 239119, IDC, white paper sponsored by HP and Intel, March 2013. 2 HP Internal measurement based on monthly TS Delivery statistics. 3 HP Internal estimate based on a manual simulation and an automated simulation using HP Insight Online, 2012. For more, check out: http://intranet.hp.com/tsg/ww2/hpcompetition or visit the Partner Portal (Marketing Toolkit > Competitive) Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 6