HP (NYSE: HPQ) knew it had to move toward offering public cloud computing if the company wanted to compete with major public cloud players such as Amazon and Google. In addition, HP recognized that it should build an integrated strategy to deliver its solutions in a simpler way. These issues are at the heart of HP’s April 10 announcements: the new HP Cloud Services, the company’s first generation of public cloud infrastructure, platform services and cloud solutions; and the HP Converged Cloud, which offers organizations a single-sourced, hybrid delivery solution that spans traditional IT as well as private, managed and public clouds.
With these announcements, HP aims to create a hybrid delivery approach and portfolio based on a common architecture spanning traditional IT, private, managed and public clouds. In addition, HP made clear its belief in the future of cloud computing as a hybrid model. “Companies will choose a hybrid model when moving to cloud computing because they aim to use the resources they already have in a heterogeneous environment,” Antonio Couto, HP Brazil’s cloud strategist, told RCR Wireless News.
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As Couto explained, HP seeks to deliver a solution portfolio that prioritizes previous investments. He also noted that mobility is boosting cloud applications and increasing the demand for cloud services.
Regarding HP’s goals, Couto believes that there will be a cloud boom next year. “Last year, we noted an increase in businesses interested in cloud computing. This year we will see a consolidation in service providers’ offers, and for 2013 we can expect a growth in cloud project implementations.”
According to a survey conducted by Coleman Parkes Research on behalf of HP, organizations are prioritizing cloud investments, with 43% of businesses expected to invest $500,000 to $1 million annually on cloud computing between now and 2020, and almost 10% planning to spend more than $1 million annually.
With the HP Converged Cloud, the company hopes to bring its different cloud solutions together as a unique point of contact, including HP Converged Infrastructure, HP Converged Management and Security, Converged Information and hardened OpenStack™ technology.
Indeed, HP Cloud Services is built on HP Converged Infrastructure and HP software, with a developer-friendly integration of OpenStack™ technology. Focused on developers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises of all sizes, it delivers an open-source-based public cloud infrastructure with business-oriented features.
On May 10, HP Cloud Services will be publicly available as beta services. They will be offered through a pay-as-you-go model, including HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) powered by the Akamai Intelligent Platform. New cloud services that will be available as private beta services include HP Cloud Block Storage and HP Cloud Relational Database (RDB) for MySQL.
Cloud journey
The HP move toward cloud computing is not surprising since the convergence of cloud computing and mobile connectivity is changing the way infrastructures are built, applications are developed and information is delivered.
At the end of last year, HP presented its infrastructure and platform as a service, called “Enterprise Cloud Services,” which expanded its portfolio with solutions for private clouds, continuity and unified communications to deliver IT flexibility and enterprise agility for clients. Enterprise Cloud Services have also expanded from an enterprise class infrastructure-as a-service (IaaS) to include complete solutions for security, messaging and collaboration.
From now on, all HP’s cloud-focused solutions will be under the HP Converged Cloud umbrella. By making such a move, HP focused on providing a platform to enable businesses to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements.
The new HP Converged Cloud portfolio offerings include HP Public Cloud for the next generation of web applications (HP Cloud Services will deliver its initial offering) and managing hybrid delivery environments, which comprises HP’s new Cloud Maps extending HP’s integrated, open solution, HP Service Virtualization 2.0, HP Virtual Application Networks, HP FlexNetwork architecture, HP Virtual Network Protection Service, HP Network Cloud Optimization Service and HP Engineering Cloud Transformation Services.
