Hewlett-Packard (HP) Wednesday rolled out software aimed to simplify the management of its BladeSystem blade servers running Linux, said the company.

The new software, HP Control Tower, is based on Linux server management software HP acquired from RLX Technologies late last year. It allows users to more easily deploy and monitor their HP BladeSystem servers in a Linux environment, according to HP.

HP already provides server management software geared for users with predominantly Windows environments, and it plans to eventually integrate the capabilities of Control Tower into its other management software, said Lee Johns, director of HP’s Velocity software, enterprise servers and storage, in Palo Alto, Calif.

HP Control Tower will be available in May for US$199 per license.

HP and IBM own the lion’s share of the blade-server market, which research firm IDC expects to grow to $10 billion by 2009.

-Shelley Solheim, IDG News Service

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