HP announced its new Always On Support offering yesterday. It takes into account the new HP ProLiant Gen8 servers and the continued focus on converged infrastructures that HP is banking on in this age of fast changing enterprise environments.

The news reflects what we well know. The enterprise is a mixed environment of virtualized, interdependent infrastructures that increasingly combine enterprise owned data centers and external “cloud” services.

In this equation, the concept of support has changed dramatically.

In an interview yesterday on theCube, HP’s Vice President of Technology Services Michelle Weiss said the new HP approach is to simplify things as much as possible. That means automated, simple processes that get people connected to the right people, any time.

But I think more interesting is how HP is turning its support to how servers are actually managed. We are entering a new phase for how services are conducted. As Weiss points out, the people are critical to the process. But the machines have to be automated to help people get the job completed.

“
Watch live video from SiliconANGLE.com on Justin.tv”

That’s the special sauce you find in tbe new HP ProLiant Gen8 line of servers. They are automated to update themselves, remind you about maintenance issues and keep you informed about their general health. In many ways, the machines have the intelligence to service themselves.

That’s a significant change in how services are conducted. It’s as much the machine that provides the service as it is the people who respond quickly to customer concerns.

Services Angle

There are times when you want people to answer your questions. And there are other times when the ultimate convenience is in getting that notification about a task to perform. That’s the combination that I find compelling with HP. It’s about the people and how the machines interact with us to make it easier for customers.

The HP approach differs from a new services provider like Zendesk, which we wrote about yesterday. The Zendesk Web-based service centralizes conversations across an organization’s customer support channels. It integrates with SaaS offerings such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite. It has an API for connecting a customer’s apps and back end systems. Customers may access it through the Web, mobile apps, forums and other mediums.

We don’t see that kind of service at all in what HP is offering. HP talks about software patches and associated services for a legacy IT infrastructure that has to correlate to a new services environment. Weiss herself says the difference is striking when you compare the difference in how different age groups want to interact in a services environment. The HP approach is very sophisticated but does reflect the demographics of its customers. For it to really transform, HP will need to look at services like Zendesk as models for new ways to innovate. Combine that with the people approach and automated offferings of Gen8 and you have a potent comnbination for customers, be they young or old.