HP has also updated its professional services for cloud through new training aimed at closing the cloud skills gap. Citing research conducted by the 451 Group, HP has explained that 60% of CIOS see a lack of IT expertise as an impediment to execution on cloud strategies and solutions (The 451 Group and TheInfoPro, “Mainframe and the Cloud,” May 2011). To help overcome this obstacle to broader adoption, HP has updated its ExpertONE training for IT professionals, which now includes new certifications for cloud administrator and for cloud integrator that are designed to shift the IT department from a product-centric group to a “unified service-centric IT,” that can manage the needs of environments that may span cloud and traditional IT. According to Assem, the curriculum aims to help individuals understand what is necessary to build and manage across private, public and hybrid environments, but “when it comes down to an actual integration, there is more bias toward our own CloudSystem offering. You end up with a broad case initially, and then you focus.” The new certifications are targeted at staff in enterprises and in service provider organizations.
A final announcement in the cloud arena focuses on mobile, anywhere printing. HP’s
ePrint Enterprise 2.0 solution allows print command from a smartphone or tablet (Android, iPhone, iPad, Palm and BlackBerry mobile devices) to the organization’s existing printer fleet to empower the rapidly growing, mobile worker segment. Available as a managed service for enterprises (or online for consumers – there are already over a million and a half downloads), new ePrint capabilities will include integration with additional pin and pull printing third-party software, security access control that restricts printers to specific users, localization in 10 languages and visitor printing capabilities.
