By Mark Davison at Discover 2013, Barcelona – Cloud computing will be HP’s single biggest investment next year as it looks to dominate a sector of the market where it is enjoying phenomenal success, reporting 60% year-on-year growth. And yesterday it launched a slew of cloud products aimed at maintaining this.
“It’s been a great year for us in the cloud,” says Bill Veghte, executive vice-president and GM of HP’s enterprise group. “Whether you measure it in terms of growth, certification of partners or recognition from analysts, we’ve performed exceptionally and intend carrying this into the next year.”
Veghte says that apart from 60% year on year growth, the company currently has more than 250 partners certified to provide cloud services and delivery. More than 1 900 customers rely on HP cloud, he adds, and 37% of Fortune 100 companies run on HP Converged Cloud.
“The next wave of innovation will be in the cloud,” Veghte says. “And it will be our single biggest investment in the coming year.”
The next-generation HP CloudSystem launched yesterday includes a new consumer-inspired user interface, simplified management tools and an improved deployment process that enable customers to set up and deploy a complete private cloud environment in just hours, compared to weeks for other private cloud solutions
As the foundation of a hybrid cloud solution, HP CloudSystem bursts to multiple public cloud platforms, including three new ones: Microsoft Windows Azure, and platforms from Arsys, a European-based cloud computing provider, and SFR, a French telecommunications company.
HP CloudSystem integrates OpenStac-based HP Cloud OS technology, the foundation for HP’s hybrid cloud architecture, providing customers a hardened, tested OpenStack distribution that is easy to install and manage.
The next-generation CloudSystem also incorporates the new HP Hybrid Cloud Management Platform, a comprehensive management solution that enables enterprises and service providers to deliver secure cloud services across public or private clouds as well as traditional IT.
Also launching yesterday, the HP Hybrid Cloud Management Platform integrates HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) version 4.0 and includes native support for both HP CloudOS with OpenStack and the open-source standard TOSCA (Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications), enabling easier application portability and management of hybrid and heterogeneous IT environments.
To help customers architect and implement a hybrid cloud strategy, HP is adding a new hybrid-design capability to its global professional services capabilities. HP Hybrid Cloud Design Professional Services offer a highly modular design approach to help organizations architect a cloud solution that aligns with their technical, organizational and business needs.
The new consulting services help customers evolve their cloud strategy and vision into a solution based on delivering business outcomes and ready for implementation.
HP is expanding its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) offering, which is already helping hundreds of customers worldwide take advantage of the economics of a public cloud with the security and control of a private cloud solution. The new HP VPC Portfolio provides a range of VPC solutions, from standardized self-service to a customised, fully managed service model.
All HP VPC solutions deliver the security and control of a private cloud in a flexible, cost-effective, multitenant cloud environment. The latest version of HP Managed VPC now allows customers to choose among virtual or physical configurations, multiple tiers of storage, hypervisors and network connectivity types.
As part of its overall hybrid delivery, HP offers HP Flexible Capacity (FC), an on-premises solution of enterprise-grade infrastructure with cloud economics, including pay-for-use and instant scalability of server, storage, networking and software capacity.
Now HP FC supports existing customer third-party equipment for a true heterogeneous environment. HP CloudSystem also can burst to HP FC infrastructure for customers needing the on-demand capacity without the data ever leaving the premises.