LES ULIS, FRANCE--(Marketwired - Jan 14, 2014) - HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that Air France has automated and increased the reliability of its 1,500 Linux servers by deploying a private cloud solution based on HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) software to accelerate deployment times for physical and virtual infrastructures.

Air France operates 1,500 flights daily in France and across the world. Together with KLM, Air France is part of one of the leading European air transport groups, offering customers access to a network covering 230 destinations in 113 countries from hubs at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. In addition, KLM and Air France, along with partners Delta and Alitalia, operate Europe's biggest transatlantic joint venture, with more than 250 flights daily.

With between 350 and 500 installations and reinstallations annually, Air France's Linux server farm is growing rapidly. In light of the resource costs incurred by these installations, and the increasing convergence between Air France and KLM, it became necessary to standardize on a single tool to automate the deployment of operating systems, middleware, monitoring tools and capacity management. The HP solution, which paid for itself within a year, significantly reduced the time it was taking to bring environments into service while improving quality and reducing operational costs.

"Since automating our installation processes, we have gone from around six days for installing a server cluster to one day and, instead of more than 24 hours, it now takes less than 15 minutes to install one virtual machine," said Patrick Bourel, head of Open Systems, Air France. "This scalable platform will allow Air France to put in place monitoring and audit tools in order to achieve better quality of service."

After a validation phase with HP Operations Orchestration and HP Server Automation software, which reduced the cost of infrastructure provisioning by 85 percent, Air France created a private cloud with HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) software and put the solution into production. In the space of 12 months, 90 percent of installation processes were automated. HP CSA's self-service portal gives project managers secure access to installation services and automatic server provisioning, reducing delivery time and eliminating human error.

This private cloud, enriched by the integration of a range of application environments, will be progressively extended to other groups of users who want to access an expanding catalogue of cloud services. The next phase of the project consists of automating the deployment of application environments and increasing the functionalities of the platform with DevOps functions for a community of 500 to 600 developers.

"Businesses are increasingly interested in cloud solutions that can improve flexibility, enable new business processes and increase efficiency," said Jean-Marc Defaut, director, Cloud, HP France. "HP software helps Air France achieve its business objectives, now and in the future."

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. With the broadest technology portfolio spanning printing, personal systems, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP delivers solutions for customers' most complex challenges in every region of the world. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the need to address the many challenges facing HP's businesses; the competitive pressures faced by HP's businesses; risks associated with executing HP's strategy and plans for future operations; the impact of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the need to manage third-party suppliers and the distribution of HP's products and services effectively; the protection of HP's intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; risks associated with HP's international operations; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its suppliers, customers, clients and partners; the hiring and retention of key employees; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the execution, timing and results of restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost and the anticipated benefits of implementing those plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2013, and that are otherwise described or updated from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.