The benefits of this cloud service include not just cost savings and performance improvements, but increased control of workload location, compliance and security.
Guest post by Catie Merrill, Senior Analyst in Technology Business Research Inc.'s Cloud and Software Practice
While cost and performance are important reasons to keep certain workloads in a managed colocation environment, control is a key reason why businesses look to solutions that combine the benefits of colocation and cloud services, such as HPE GreenLake with Equinix. Here, control often means the ability to cut costs through metering of usage. But it goes further. By delivering this combination of colocation and services, HPE GreenLake with Equinix manages IT optimization, security, and compliance, enabling businesses to focus on their core strategies.
IT optimization is the key to true workload performance improvement and better cost visibility
The partnership between HPE and Equinix provides customers with visibility into their cost and utilization across their on-premises and cloud workloads, making HPE GreenLake with Equinix the enabler of a truly hybrid strategy. HPE GreenLake with Equinix helps customers select the right place for all of their individual workloads.
- The HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform provides customers with the insights they need: The HPE GreenLake platform tracks organizations’ costs and utilization across major public clouds, as well as on-premises infrastructure, helping them to choose, on an ongoing basis, the right place for workloads. This helps customers avoid the mistake of repatriating expensive, egress-heavy workloads back on-premises after moving to cloud.
As companies look for their IT strategy to provide them with cost and utilization outcomes that match their business objectives, metering is a must-have tool rather than simply a nice-to-have option. With the HPE GreenLake platform, businesses can access real-time information about technology spending across hybrid environments, with the ability to view the data by users, teams or business units.
- Equinix’s expansive network of managed data centers also plays a key role in capacity management: With high bandwidth, low-latency connections, and built-in burst capacity, Equinix’s data center network means that customers get the on-demand connections they need. They can scale their capacity as needed and pay only for what they use. Equinix customers enjoy connectivity that is provisioned across time zones and regions, with local presence leading to operational improvements.
Using a cloud services offering removes security from companies’ list of to-dos
TBR’s 2H21 Cloud Infrastructure & Platforms Customer Research found that security remains one of the top barriers to customer adoption of a cloud-first strategy. One CTO from the manufacturing industry told TBR, “Security is very, very critical. It’s probably the number one factor we look at when we make cloud decisions … how can we make sure that we can be as secure and compliant [as possible]? Because we don’t want to lose our data; we want to be able to comply with GDPR [the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation] and so many different certifications that are out there.”
HPE GreenLake with Equinix is an answer to this concern as well, moving the security aspects of cloud management off customers’ list of responsibilities. HPE GreenLake with Equinix has built-in governance and compliance features, helping enterprises meet certain laws and regulations to protect personal data, which often require all data collected to be stored in a specified geographical location. Due to Equinix owning and operating a network of 240+ International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in over 70 major metropolitan areas around the world, customers get a broad set of options to store data that meet various regulatory requirements for geographical location.
Further, customers can embed their own compliance rules into the HPE GreenLake platform, ensuring that compliance demands are included in all workload evaluations.
Finally, customers using HPE GreenLake with Equinix can also access other offerings, such as Disaster Recovery as a Service, that improve their security and compliance position without additional internal resources.
Equinix, meanwhile, helps customers decentralize their enterprise architecture, enabling them to move security controls to distributed hubs adjacent to the clouds. This helps them reduce their attack surface, maintain visibility of traffic, apply consistent policies across the organization, and apply a zero-trust model to ensure that users and workloads can access only the resources they need.
Simplifying the complex and multifaceted challenge of control
Businesses leveraging a hybrid cloud model across their IT environments have a complex set of needs concerning control. Adopting cloud services like HPE GreenLake with Equinix enables these buyers not just to gain the operational improvements associated with colocation, but to go further by understanding and controlling their usage trends while ensuring adherence to global compliance standards and enhancing security.
About TBR
Technology Business Research, Inc. is a leading independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in the business and financial analyses of hardware, software, professional services, telecom and enterprise network vendors, and operators. Serving a global clientele, TBR provides timely and actionable market research and business intelligence in formats that are tailored to clients’ needs. TBR has been empowering corporate decision makers since 1996. For more information, visit www.tbri.com.
Cloud_Experts
HPE experts share their insights on how you can transform your business with HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform – the cloud that comes to you, wherever your apps and data live.
