HP Duet Appliance Aids Evaluations

A Hewlett-Packard (HP) server preloaded with Duet software could help organizations evaluate the product and jumpstart production deployments. Duet is a joint Microsoft-SAP product that lets workers access SAP’s business applications using Office. Announced at SAP’s Sapphire 2007 conference and dubbed “Duet by SAP and Microsoft, powered by HP,” the appliance contains preinstalled Duet software with wizards to aid further setup and integration. However, the companies have not provided technical details about the appliance, its component software, and how (or if) it will work with organizations’ production environments.

Also at Sapphire 2007, Microsoft and SAP confirmed that they will continue to refine and extend Duet with future releases. In addition to an incremental release (Duet 1.5) planned for the fourth quarter of 2007, the companies are planning second and third versions of the product in the 2008 to 2010 timeframe.

The HP Duet appliance will be available in June 2007 in North America. Pricing has not been announced.