HPE’s new cloud platform, HPE GreenLake Platform (GLP), provides an open and secure edge-to-cloud platform that offers a true private cloud experience, delivering the same experience you’d expect from a hyperscaler. Simply put, GLP is to HPE what Azure is to Microsoft, or what Amazon Web Services is to Amazon. The biggest difference is that with GLP, the customer’s hardware and data remain physically at their site, while the management takes place via a platform in the HPE public cloud.
HPE is making some revolutionary moves in cloud. With the development of technology accelerating at speed, customers are less interested in the details of the technology itself, prioritising solutions that meet specific business needs. HPE has shifted to become an outcome and business value organisation, driving services that land with HPE GreenLake for a true private cloud experience.
Exploring the cloud
Cloud computing is an abstract concept. Rather than a mysterious, ephemeral place where data is magically sent to, each cloud is actually a server room, where data is stored and secured on physical hardware. Cloud technologies are fairly similar across the board, so organisations need to focus on their requirements – the basics of operation, business continuity, user and customer satisfaction as well as meeting legal requirements – when deciding where each workload is best placed.
It is crucial to consider each workload and application, as data is subject to ‘virtual gravity’ – the more data, the more difficult it is to move it freely. It is important to decide on the best place for such data, and the purpose of its storage and use. Is it better to keep it on-premises, or in a public cloud? It’s essential to consider the ease or complexity of managing this data, as well as securing it, and using an appropriate platform, suited to the data itself. HPE GreenLake Platform offers a range of Data Management Services, including HPE GreenLake for Block Storage.
Ground-breaking HPE GreeenLake for Block Storage
HPE GreenLake for Block Storage is the industry's first available-as-a-service storage that offers both self-service capabilities and a 100% availability guarantee for mission-critical environments. This solution provides the user with the ability to move from operator to service provider, which means that organisations can focus their resources in areas that bring real business results, rather than on IT infrastructure management.
Many organisations are looking for ways to reduce time-to-market (higher agility) and increase product quality (and therefore customer satisfaction), while reducing costs and keeping them under control. HPE GreenLake for Block Storage unlocks agility, speeding the pace of new apps, services and initiatives with self-service, SLA-based block storage. It also offers 100% or 99.9999% guaranteed availability, with industry-leading levels of performance, compared with most storage-as-a-service offerings which do not match business-critical applications, only providing 99.99% or less data availability.
These types of storage do not provide the flexibility required with self-service systems. While the storage, delivered as-a-service, ensures consumption according to the usage-pricing model, customers still have to deal with traditional storage management and the intricacies involved in the system. As a result, the speed with which organisations can move confidently in the rapidly changing world of data storage remains limited.
Getting the best from HPE GreenLake for Block Storage
HPE GreenLake for Block Storage offers self-selection of the service level and its parameters - including guaranteed Service Levels (SLAs) around availability, performance tier, reserved capacity and subscription period, meeting the SLA requirements for unique workloads. This allows customers to focus on the SLA levels they want without worrying about which storage technology works best and releasing the strain of constantly managing them.
The first step for organisations interested in HPE GreenLake for Block Storage is to consider the following:
- Data availability level required (availability tier): ‘Mission critical’ or ‘Business critical’ or ‘General purpose’
- Performance level ‘performance tier’ (ie the number of IOPS – ‘Value’ or ‘balanced’ or ‘performance’)
- Reserved usable capacity in GB (‘committed capacity’)
- Network interface / connectivity
- Subscription period: three years at launch only (more options will be available in the future)
The more data that is stored, the higher the savings available to customers, with a lower GB/month rate, and there is always a buffer capacity installed.
The subscription includes the required storage system, software licences, 24/7 technical support, access to HPE Data Services Cloud Console (a management panel designed to eliminate the complexity of data management, and used to manage the HPE GreenLake for Block Storage service) and capacity monitoring via HPE Infosight. Installation of the environment is provided by HPE or a certified partner.
Watch a 3 minute video demonstrating HPE GreenLake for Block Storage.
What about data protection?
Data storage and processing are crucial for the operation of any organisation, however it’s important not to forget about the protection of the data. With today's IT complexity and cybercrime threats, the risk of data loss is greater than ever. HPE GreenLake Platform also enables easy data protection and recovery after loss or hardware failure. This is ensured by a range of HPE GreenLake for Data Protection services.
PiotrDrag
HPE Storage Category Manager for Poland. Passionate about primary storage, data protecion, public Cloud, scale out storage systems and Internet of Things.
