These are exhilarating times in IT. Itโs amazing to think that itโs just a dozen years or so since Amazon launched its Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), the first widely accessible platform for cloud computing. Since then weโve seen the inexorable rise of hybrid IT, as businesses seek to balance the benefits of the cloud โ its simplicity and flexible, pay-per use economics โ with the control and security that on-premises infrastructure provides. There canโt be many organizations that havenโt explored public cloud and SaaS offerings in the past few years. This movement is changing the way companies think about on-premises models, too. A new IDC report notes that โBy 2020, consumption-based procurement in datacenters will have eclipsed traditional procurement through improved โas a serviceโ models, thus accounting for as much as 40% of enterprises' IT infrastructure spending.โ
Ending the on-prem vs. on-demand dilemma
The next stage in the evolution of hybrid IT is already unfolding, and itโs driven by a simple but dazzling insight: In-house infrastructure itself, and the services that sustain it, need to take on more cloud-like qualities. Companies shouldnโt have to choose between on-premises or on-demand capacity. And they should be able to pay for the hardware, software and services that they use in one simple monthly bill.
Thatโs the beauty of HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity, an infrastructure solution that provides a consumption-based payment model to align cash flow to actual usage, plus an HPE support team to help you plan your needs and operate the solution. The diagram below shows how it works. Our team works with you to project your capacity needs and set a minimum commitment level. Then HPE creates a local buffer of IT resources that you can dip into as needed. Contrast that with the traditional approach to infrastructure procurement; resources to cover future capacity needs end up sitting idle, tying up capital that could be used to benefit the business. Long procurement cycles hamper LOBsโ ability to take advantage of new opportunities, to react quickly to gain advantages in the market.
With HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity, you can smooth out surges in capacity requirements, paying only for what you use. Plus, you get the peace of mind that comes from enterprise-grade support experience, and an assigned HPE account technical support team.
Why this changes everything
To understand why HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity is such a game-changer in the hybrid IT arena, itโs worth taking a step back to see just how far weโve come.
Hewlett Packardโs leadership in pay-per-use dates back to 2006 โ the same year that Amazon launched EC2 โ when we introduced our Utility Ready Storage, Utility Ready Computing and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) programs. These solutions enabled customers, for the first time, to pay for server computing in the same way they pay for utility services, on a monthly invoice basis. Eight years of intensive development and extension paved the way for the release of HP Flexible Capacity, which delivered on-prem infrastructure with all the benefits of a public-cloud-like experience, along with enterprise-grade support.
The tremendous success of Flexible Capacity in the marketplace was in large part the result of our responsiveness to customer requests and suggestions. We heard things like: โCan you do this with Blade servers?โ Yes, we could do that. โWhat about UNIX?โ Yes, no problem. โWhat about Microsoft Azure services? Can you integrate those?โ Sure.
But customers wanted more. They wanted workload-targeted solutions across the full breadth of the data center. And we decided we could do that, too. In November last year we announced HPE GreenLake, a suite of solutions powered by HPE Flexible Capacity:
- HPE GreenLake Big Data. An end-to-end solution to simplify your Hadoop experience; it includes all the hardware, software and HPE Pointnext services you need to set up, operate and manage your clusters.
- HPE GreenLake Backup. A comprehensive solution using Commvault for on-premises backup capacity, with simplified billing based on the number of terabytes used.
- HPE GreenLake Database with EDB Postgres. An on-premise, open-source solution that leverages EDB Postgres, an enterprise-class data management platform, to simplify your data base experience and reduce total cost of ownership.
- HPE GreenLake for SAP HANA. An on-prem appliance with right-sized, SAP-certified hardware, operating system, and services from HPE Pointnext, the leading supplier of SAP infrastructure.
- HPE GreenLake Edge Compute. A complete framework to accelerate your journey to the Internet of Things.
Watch this space
HPE GreenLake is the culmination of twelve yearsโ deep research, hard work and tireless innovation to produce what Ana Pinczuk, SVP and GM of HPE Pointnext, has called an โexperience that is the best of both worlds โ a simple, pay-per-use technology model with the risk management of data thatโs under the customerโs direct control.โ To bring it to market, HPE brings together a wide range of compute, networking and storage choices; infrastructure metering technologies; and professional, advisory, financial and support services on a global scale. Thatโs a collection of assets that very few vendors can match, and which no-one else in the market has assembled into a comparable suite of offerings.
Weโre not stopping there, though. We recently added support for containers using Docker software and support for HPE Synergy composable infrastructure. And we see tremendous growth areas ahead. Artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, hyperconverged infrastructure ... The future is wide open for a solution that combines the benefits of on-premises infrastructure with the agility and flexibility of the cloud.
Learn more about outcome-based, Flexible IT consumption from HPE Pointnext here.
Related blogs:
- Scott Ramsay: Asset-light business models are winning. Could Flexible Consumption be the key?
- Craig Routledge: On-Premises, Consumption-Based IT: 3 Ways It Can Benefit Your Business
- John OโConnor: Have Your Backup Cake โ And Eat It Too
- Lynne Lewis: HPE GreenLake Big Data: Unwrapping the Gifts Your Data Brings
- Kitty Chow: Edge Compute Made Easier with HPE GreenLake
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Don_Randall
WW HPE Pointnext Marketing. Reach me at @donrrandall on Twitter.
