Hewlett-Packard (HP) is readying the next version of its Unix operating system with new features designed to automate workload movement in virtual environments, the company said Thursday.With version 3.0 of HP-UX 11i, set to ship later this year, HP has re-engineered the I/O subsystem to improve performance, integration with storage environments and load balancing. HP plans to further refine the operating system’s automation capabilities with version 4.0, which it plans to ship by 2009. Version 4.0 will add more policy-based automation functionality.“So, you could define service levels, and the system figures out the resources, how to move things around to match service levels, with little operator intervention,” said Don Jenkins, vice president of business critical servers for HP in Palo Alto, Calif.HP acknowledges that the overall Unix market is not growing, but says it is seeing healthy growth for Unix servers for mission-critical applications in such areas as business processing and decision support. Unix servers are facing increasing competition from Linux servers in big companies. Research firm IDC reported this week that worldwide revenue for Unix servers dropped about 7 percent in the first quarter of 2006 from a year ago, while revenue for both Windows and Linux servers increased.Also on Thursday, HP said that IBM in the next few months will port more of its WebSphere, Rational, Tivoli and Lotus middleware onto HP Integrity servers running HP-UX. -Shelley Solheim, IDG News ServiceCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost Stay in Control of Your Data with a Secure and Compliant Sovereign Cloud By Stan Kwong Mar 23, 2023 6 mins Cloud Security Cloud Computing News Accenture to lay off 19,000 to cut costs amid economic uncertainty Technology services giant Accenture will continue to hire but meanwhile is cutting staff to streamline operations in the face of economic headwinds. By Anirban Ghoshal Mar 23, 2023 2 mins IT Consulting Services Technology Industry BrandPost Advice from procurement: How to evaluate and propose new IT investments By clearly defining needs and requirements, evaluating TCO, and performing risk assessments, procurement and IT teams can work together to help their business leaders make more informed decisions for an improved bottom line. By Bo Bradshaw, Edgio Procurement Director Mar 23, 2023 5 mins SaaS BrandPost Why AI is key to hiring and retaining developers Data shows that the opportunity to build AI-powered apps figures very prominently in where developers decide to work. By Bryan Kirschner, Vice President, Strategy at DataStax Mar 23, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe