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Unlock the power of as-a-service infrastructure for the public sector: 4 big benefits

With HPE GreenLake, public sector organizations can bring the agility of cloud to all of their applications and data, wherever theyโ€™re located โ€“ with the low latency and robust security of on-premises equipment.

By Scott Cassady, Sales Director, US Public Sector, HPE PointNext Services

HPE-GreenLake-Public-Sector-Cloud-Services 2.pngAlmost every government agency these days is a consumer of public cloud for certain workloads or applications. But there remains a very significant portion of their overall IT support requirements where public cloud is not the best answer. Latency is certainly a major player in that. And, just like the corporate world, many public sector organizations are starting to understand that there are costs involved โ€“ data egress costs, for example โ€“ that may not have been well understood upfront when they first made the move to public cloud.

In addition, a secure data supply chain, the integrity of the infrastructure on which data resides, and data sovereignty in general have always been important considerations for infrastructure choices. When the pandemic hit, public sector organizations still needed to do secure work, but now they had to do it remotely. There was a meaningful uptick in technologies like virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that enable stakeholders, contractors and employees to access the information they need for their day-to-day job from a different work location โ€“ for example, when they're not coming in to a military base every day.

The rise of the Edge

Another big influence on cloud calculations these days is the rise of edge-to-core strategies. Weโ€™re seeing a real groundswell of momentum in customers working to understand and define what their edge capabilities should be. For example, HPE worked with a federal relief agency to create a highly mobile, fully operational data center. Itโ€™s essentially a bundle of HPE blades packaged in a custom-created case; you can load it on a plane and fly it out to a disaster zone. Itโ€™s battery operated, you just flip the switch and suddenly youโ€™ve got lights blinking green and a bunch of powerful compute ready to get stuff done.

Or think about things like wearables for troops in combat and command zones where they need to be able to do facial recognition at the drop of a hat. HPE has the ability to deliver that kind of compute power, and itโ€™s really that forward-deployed.

With these accelerating and disparate demands on infrastructure, many public sector organizations have shifted from a cloud-first to a cloud-smart mentality. Theyโ€™re looking for a more flexible approach, one that can bring the agility of public cloud to their applications and data wherever theyโ€™re located โ€“ with all the security and protection of on-premises equipment. And theyโ€™re finding it in HPE GreenLake.

4 big benefits of pay-per-use, as-a-service infrastructure

HPE GreenLake is an advanced as-a-service platform that delivers pay-per-use infrastructure to wherever you need it โ€“ in your datacenter, in a colocation facility, or at the edge. We install and configure the software and hardware, we apply HPE metering technologies to gauge your usage, and we charge you on a monthly invoice based on that usage. We keep an eye on capacity for you, and itโ€™s easy to scale up or down as your needs change. HPE monitors and operates the solution to keep it running at peak performance; we take care of versioning for you to make sure that everything stays current.

So what are the big benefits that HPE GreenLake cloud services bring to public sector entities?

1. Eliminate over-provisioning. For most public sector organizations, the economic benefits of HPE GreenLake are paramount, and the ability to reduce over-purchasing is key. Many agencies donโ€™t want to be constantly turning to Congress to seek appropriations. Their traditional procurement mode is to say, โ€œI'm going to need x amount of compute power in three yearsโ€™ time. So I'm going to get my appropriations in today, even though it means Iโ€™m going to buy what I know I'm not going to need for three years.โ€ A public university might be hesitant to go to its board of regents to get funding for a refresh or expansion of its IT capabilities, for similar reasons.

What that means is they're burning cash, which is not a good use of taxpayer dollars. They're also burning through warranty, software licenses, and cooling, as well as tying up floor space. By understanding and taking advantage of HPE GreenLake, you can eliminate the need to overbuy or over-deploy. Thatโ€™s a key part of the analysis for a government agency to look at when they consider doing traditional buys versus going with the HPE GreenLake platform.

2. Simplify capacity management. HPE GreenLake for Public Sector brings a welcome simplicity to IT capacity management, which in turn can make budgeting and forecasting more predictable.

3. Do more, and do it faster. Many government departments have โ€˜lumpyโ€™ budgeting cycles that can delay deployment of, for example, much-needed high-performance compute systems. The ability to take on technology initiatives almost on the fly is becoming a much more valuable benefit for government organizations. They don't necessarily want to do a full-blown RFP and get three competitive bids every time they want to inject a new piece of technology; often, theyโ€™d prefer to contract for an SLA. Thatโ€™s a big advantage of the as-a-service model. In addition, HPE delivers a kind of perpetual refresh as an enabling factor of the HPE GreenLake engagement.

4. Concentrate on the mission. With HPE GreenLake solutions, HPE retains ownership of the assets, and the care and feeding of that infrastructure is the responsibility of HPE. That means you can refocus your resources on mission-facing objectives. No more worries along the lines of โ€œI have to do a firmware upgrade tonight.โ€ HPE GreenLake delivers a full stack of value-added services versus. We have the capability and the cleared resources to support unique customers with stringent classification requirements. Not many OEMs can bring that kind of muscle and flexibility to the marketplace.

Revitalizing the citizen experience

These are just a few of the benefits that HPE GreenLake cloud services bring to public sector organizations. They may be a bit different from those that are top-of-mind for commercial customers, where a balance sheet, stock price, and accelerated ROI may be among the primary driving forces. But they are unique, differentiated benefits that a public sector customer may not be able to get from a traditional, straight-up buy.

Looking to the future, I expect to see an acceleration of the move towards cloud-smart, hybrid, as-a-service infrastructure. Security is only going to become even more important tomorrow than it was today, and HPE products delivered via HPE GreenLake are backed by the most robust, secure supply chain on the planet.

Government customers are becoming more comfortable with the pay-per-use approach in requisitions. Congress itself is certainly moving more and more in the direction of doing things as a service. And, just like in the commercial world, thereโ€™s a growing desire among government agencies to get out of the business of running data centers and focus more on providing better services. HPE GreenLake enables them to do that in a very flexible, efficient, and above all secure fashion so that theyโ€™re not putting taxpayer dollars, or citizensโ€™ data, at risk.

Learn how HPE GreenLake can help you revitalize the citizen experience through digital transformation.

Learn more about HPE GreenLake for Public Sector.

Scott Cassady.jpgScott Cassady is Sales Director, US Public Sector, HPE PointNext Services. In his current role, Scott is responsible for all services sales for HPE into all federal and SLED customer accounts. HPE GreenLake Cloud Services is his primary area of focus; he manages solutions and the Solution Architects team. Scott has been recognized for living HPE values by winning our Drive for Success in 2018 and 2019. He was also awarded District Sales Manager of the Year in North America in 2018 and 2019.


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