In a press event today at HP company headquarters, HP announced that it has sharpened the focus of its advanced research group, HP Labs, to address the most complex challenges facing technology customers in the next decade - dividing its efforts into 5 areas of interest: the information explosion, dynamic cloud services, content transformation, intelligent infrastructure and sustainability.

HP Labs will pursue 20 to 30 large research projects – instead of the 150 smaller projects in the past – based on insight gained from newly expanded relationships with universities, partners, customers and venture capitalists.

The new HP Labs now consists of 23 distinct labs across seven worldwide locations; it is led by Prith Banerjee, who joined as director last August. Collectively, the labs are focused on five main areas: information explosion, dynamic cloud services, content transformation, intelligent infrastructure and sustainability.

The redesign of HP Labs is intended to balance exploratory research with an entrepreneurial approach so breakthrough technology can be transferred more rapidly into commercial applications for customers.

“HP Labs has a long history of delivering innovation that has changed the way people use technology,” said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer (pictured). “The steps we’re taking today will further strengthen Labs and help ensure that HP is focused on groundbreaking research that addresses customer needs and creates new growth opportunities for the company.”

Initially, HP Labs’ refocused research agenda will address the following five areas:

• Information explosion: Acquiring, analyzing and delivering the right information to individuals and businesses so they can act on it.
• Dynamic cloud services: Developing web platforms and cloud services that are dynamically personalized based on an individual’s location, preferences, calendar and communities.
• Content transformation: Enabling the fluid transformation of content from analog to digital, from device to device, and from digital content to physical products.
• Intelligent infrastructure: Designing smarter, more secure devices, networks and scalable architectures that work together to connect individuals and businesses to rich, dynamic content and services.
• Sustainability: Creating technologies, IT infrastructure and new business models for the lower carbon economy that save money and leave a lighter footprint on the environment.

HP Labs will help drive the company’s strategy for addressing a major shift taking place in the IT industry, which it calls ”Everything as a Service.” This view asserts that the IT industry is moving toward a model in which a new category of dynamic cloud services are personalized and aware of the user’s context, including location, preferences, calendar and communities. HP is making investments across its businesses to help lead this industry shift.

“The next wave of services will anticipate the needs of people based on a real-time understanding of an individual’s location and preferences,” said Shane Robison, HP executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer. “To deliver these new, rich experiences, the technology industry must address significant challenges in every area of IT – from devices to networks to content distribution. HP Labs is now aligned to sharpen its focus on solving these complex problems so HP and its customers can capitalize on this shift.”