Yes, roadmaps for ibm power were known for years ahead back before
7-8 years, and HP's bold promises at that time were not strong enough, but the story is not near end AFAIK (Oracle entered Xen advisory board,
http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2008/12/18/The+Oracle+comes+to+Xen), there is still time to think over without haste, and finally just to remember:
http://www.itaniumsolutions.org/resources/red_hat_enterprise_linux_virtualization_and_intel_itanium_linux_open_source_virtualization_with_enterpriseclass_features
Of all sold Itanium server, 60% are Unix (HP-UX), 30% are Linux, 5% are windows (and my management made that sad decision to turn to windows), and as HP isn't much excited so far, why is Red Hat resting so easily then ? Or maybe it's to hard to put this all together and poke HP with good alternative, just let someone else do it ...