Each day we see organisations struggle with their IT management as they work across several, sometimes siloed systems. At the same time, they are under constant pressure to ensure highest levels of cybersecurity in a constantly changing threat environment as well as compliance with regulations that become more and more complex. Simultaneously, the public cloud experience has set expectations for user experience, simplicity, and established benchmarks for time to value – outstripping the performance of legacy IT processes and technologies. Yet despite these enhancements, 70% of apps and data remain outside the cloud, with many organisations constrained by data gravity, security, compliance concerns, latency, performance challenges and app entanglement.
Our partner METCLOUD, a multi-award-winning secure cloud services provider, forged ahead to provide organisations with the best of both worlds. Creating their own cloud offering based on the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, METCLOUD delivers a sophisticated cloud experience for VMs, containers and bare metal in private cloud environments, protected by METCLOUD’s comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity technologies and services.
I sat down with Fayyaz Shah, COO at METCLOUD, to find out more about the challenges they and their customers are facing.
Tell us a little bit about METCLOUD, where and when did the company’s story begin and what is it exactly you do?
“The METCLOUD brand was launched in 2017 but its roots stem as far back as 1998. Innovation has always been at the heart of the company with the organisation developing many ground-breaking technologies.
Modern cloud services really started to take shape in 2014 and as a result we were increasingly involved in consulting and delivering global migration projects. It was during this period that we faced many security challenges due to the immaturity of the cloud security market. As a result, the seed of an idea was planted and following several years of development METCLOUD was born.
METCLOUD `Get Connected Cyber Safe’ is our mantra. This sits at the core of who we are. Understanding this helps explain why METCLOUD is different. All our services have security designed at the outset and is arguably the most secure platform available for small and medium size organisations.”
What do you think is today’s core challenge when it comes to private systems, be it on-premises or in a colocation environment? And how does HPE GreenLake help you to tackle it?
A private cloud must be as simple to operate as the public cloud. The METCLOUD platform, now runs by HPE GreenLake, provides an automated, flexible, and secure private cloud that you can use to run, support, and develop any of your apps. This makes moving to METCLOUD simple, as our customers are able to use familiar hypervisor and container technologies to leverage all their data. At the same time, it is delivered as a service, with predictable costs and no upfront payment: You pay for what you use while consumption visibility and analytics help you optimise your investment.
The HPE GreenLake platform will help power our growth in the UK and offer organisations of all sizes a real alternative to public cloud offerings. Cybersecurity is a major challenge for businesses of all sizes however small and medium size businesses are hardest hit. Our commitment to our customers is to provide optimal cloud performance, resilience, security and by harnessing HPE GreenLake we will be able to take this to another level.
Which long-term benefits do you expect to see for your customers?
Globally, organisations are facing increased financial and security challenges, with many treading the fine line between ensuring secure operations and controlling their finances. In today’s world with inflation running wild, organisations need cost predictability and agility to not only survive but gain a market advantage. HPE GreenLake provides the platform for organisations to combat inflation through a consumption based and predictable multi-year costing model, which eliminates overprovisioning and its associated costs. Controlling costs is crucial to surviving a challenging macroeconomic environment leading many organisations to be more cautious. However, whilst controlling costs is important cybersecurity must be top of mind for all; last year cyberattacks are reported to have cost UK businesses £2.8bn. Looking at this number, can anyone afford not to prioritise cybersecurity?”
Staying at the forefront of innovation
As we are shaping the future of cloud technologies with security by design, the collaboration with HPE brings us to the forefront of innovation. With METCLOUD’s comprehensive portfolio of services and the flexibility and consumption-based approach of the HPE GreenLake platform we enable organisations across all major industries to accelerate their adoption of next generation cybersecurity, and cloud computing technologies, ensuring they remain secure, effective, and efficient in a modern economy.
For more information, please visit METCLOUD’s website.
For more information on HPE GreenLake, please visit: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/greenlake.html
The HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform enables customers to accelerate data-first modernization and provides cloud services that can run on-premises, at the edge, in a colocation facility, and in the public cloud. HPE GreenLake has 65,000 customers, powers more than two million connected devices and manages more than one exabyte of data under management with customers worldwide. These organizations benefit from one control plane from which to automate, orchestrate, and run their hybrid cloud strategy. The scalable, pay-as-you go HPE GreenLake platform also delivers robust security, compliance, and control, and supports a broad partner ecosystem – including channel partners, distributors, independent software vendors, public cloud providers, service providers, and system integrators.
Alida Jinnah
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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Ali is a Data Specialist in the UK&I and has a passion for making business dreams a reality through the power of people, data and technology.