Jim Ganthier, HP Vice President, Marketing and Operations, Industry Standard Servers and Software, discussed the HP Moonshot announcement with the Cube hosts Dave Vellante and John Furrier, live at the New York City event.

“We see four massive new trends – mobile, social, cloud, big data. We looked at what it would take to make this new server,” Ganthier said. If one took the power required to power servers needed in the near future (8-10 million new servers), it would be the same as powering 2 million US homes. With Moonshot, the server requirements are met in a fundamentally new approach, that focuses on power saving. As an example, a massive web site such as HP.com currently runs on the equivalent of a dozen light bulbs. “We are pumped about the product, but also about the innovation that comes with it.”

It’s not just about what HP is doing from and architecture perspective, it’s about building an ecosystem around Moonshot. It’s about bringing together companies that share the passion for the industry. “We are not limited to traditional components with Moonshot.”

This unique perspective will allow future developments and use cases for Big Data and financial services and give HP the possibility to accelerate the rhythm of innovation.

Why reinvent the wheel?

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Commenting on the reasons behind reinventing the platform when it comes to servers, a market where HP is a leading player, Jim Ganthier  explained that power cooling was still one of the top issues customers have. They would rather spend time and assets on innovation than on paying bills for maintenance and operations. Thus power saving translates into more money being invested in technology innovation. Saving 89% of energy is what creates a lot of buzz for HP’s latest product.

Moreover, the idea of taking over their own market share does not take into account that it would take years to change the industry with Moonshot. “People should not be worried about our stuff,” they should be concerned for our competitors, he added.

Sparking industry-wide change

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Commenting on the Moonshot announcement, Ganthier deemed it a seminal moment – the day the industry started to change as far as server architecture is concerned. Because of the Pathfinder ecosystem, Moonshot’s unveiling is really about the entire industry joining in. “This is just beginning,” he explained, saying more Moonshot releases are to follow, each bringing more value to the market.

Where Moonshot adoption is concerned, large web scale class customers will be among the first to show interest in the technology.

Asked to share what the biggest surprise during the announcement was, Ganthier mentioned the number of people who attended the web event, which was extremely large and the amount of secondary requests  received. The interest from the industry and potential customers, as well as the number of inquiries, exceeded HP’s expectations for the event.