HPE GreenLake and the Goldilocks Principle: Building a hybrid cloud that’s just right

[Cloud_Experts]

Organizations are increasingly choosing a hybrid cloud approach, says analyst Patrick Moorhead. He’s right–and many are choosing HPE GreenLake because it truly enables “best-of-both-worlds” price and performance for all their workloads.

by Bryan Thompson, Vice President of Product Management for HPE GreenLake

What’s the current state of play in the shift toward hybrid cloud, and why are so many organizations headed in that direction? In a recent article for Forbes titled, The Goldilocks Principle and Hybrid Cloud, Patrick Moorhead examines these questions and clearly defines commonly used, yet misunderstood, cloud terminology.

Many readers are probably familiar with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which is known for the main character’s preference for things that aren’t too much of one trait or another but are a balance of those traits—one that’s just right. Moorhead cleverly applies the principle to hybrid cloud, which he describes as a “just the right amount” approach, a middle ground between going all-in on public cloud and retaining everything on-premises. “Every company has unique requirements,” he writes, “but taking advantage of everything the cloud offers while retaining a partial on-premises footprint for proprietary reasons is the direction of the majority.”

The piece is full of useful and important insights for any organization interested in hybrid cloud. Here are some key points that stood out to me.

Why Organizations Continue to Choose to Remain On-Prem

First, Moorhead asks what I believe is the $1M question: “If ‘just the right amount’ is the answer, why is it taking so long?” He points out that, depending on who you talk to, only about 10% to 25% of applications currently reside in the public cloud. Ten years ago, the industry tried to solve for hybrid cloud interoperability, with little success. By about five years ago, the advantages of public cloud were well known, as were the disadvantages. Recently, we’re seeing hyperscalers commit to hybrid, and they’re launching a ton of services. (Anthos, Azure Stack, AWS hybrid cloud services—just to name a few.)

Every day, organizations tell me they choose to keep data and applications on-prem for a huge variety of reasons, ranging from data sovereignty and compliance requirements, to massive data gravity and the entanglement of data across applications. What they’re looking for is not simply an add-on from a public cloud provider, but a unified cloud experience across all the workloads that they’ve decided not to migrate, for whatever reasons. And they want that simplified experience everywhere, from core data centers, to colocations, to the edge.

Hybrid Cloud’s “Just Right": Workload Placement Optimized for Cost, Performance and Experience

Another important point that Moorhead makes is that, in a sense, hybrid cloud provides the best of both worlds: “Combining the control of an on-premises data center or private cloud with the scalability of the public cloud means that each workload runs in its optimal environment for performance and total costs.” No argument from me there; I’d just add that finding the right mix can be tricky, but the long-term value pays off the effort.

Moorhead adds that managing a hybrid cloud is complex. To run a hybrid cloud effectively, “data platform administrators need one convenient user interface to administer, manage, and provision users, environments, and services across all clusters and analytic workspaces.”

I’d also like to add that it doesn’t have to be complex. There’s a solution that delivers “just right” hybrid benefits but with a simple experience: HPE GreenLake. It’s the open and secure edge-to-cloud platform that modernizes IT and operations for your apps and data. It’s pay-per-use, highly scalable, and managed your way, bringing innovation at cloud speed to your hybrid environment. And, far from being a recent arrival on the hybrid cloud scene, HPE GreenLake has a solid track record of success going back more than a decade.

Here’s a great explanation of how HPE GreenLake gives you one platform to run, manage and enhance your hybrid estate: The Cloud that Comes to You.

So, in short, this is a thought-provoking piece, and well worth your time to read. Here’s the link again: The Goldilocks Principle and Hybrid Cloud.

If you’d like to learn more about HPE GreenLake and hybrid cloud, check out my presentation at HPE Discover in the video below:

Learn more about the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform and cloud services designed for your top workloads: HPE GreenLake cloud services

Read about HPE hybrid cloud solutions, delivered as a service to help you successfully implement a cloud experience for all your workloads.

Bryan Thompson is the Vice President of Product Management for HPE GreenLake, responsible for product strategy and go-to-market for HPE GreenLake Cloud Services and Solutions. Bryan brings over 20 years of experience across product management, corporate strategy & development, marketing, and solution incubation. He has held executive and leadership roles at Oracle, Rackspace, Limelight Networks and Amazon.com.