HPE Shakes Up Storage Organization with New Data Services Platform

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is putting its data storage business through a major restructuring.

The vendor revealed it is transforming its multibillion-dollar storage organisation into “a cloud-native, software-defined data services business.”

HPE said it is building on its Unified DataOps vision with a new data services platform. The company designed the platform to bring a cloud operations model to wherever data lives and unify data operations. HPE said it marks an important milestone in its vision to become an “edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company.”

Antonio Neri is president and CEO, HPE. He says the platform enables customers to break down silos and leverage data, wherever it resides.

HPE’s Antonio Neri

“As we enter the Age of Insight, HPE is providing the ideal platform for organizations seeking to apply distributed data to fuel AI initiatives, deliver new customer experiences and drive digital transformation.”

Data Services Platform

The platform, available through HPE GreenLake, consists of a Data Services Cloud Console, cloud data services and HPE Alletra.

HPE said the Data Services Cloud Console delivers cloud operational agility and unified data operations as a service. Cloud data services is a suite of software subscription services that simplifies and automates global infrastructure management at scale. HPE Alletra, meanwhile, is a new portfolio of cloud-native data infrastructure that powers data edge-to-cloud. All three will be available for order globally direct and through channel partners this month.

“It’s getting harder to manage the ever-increasing data flooding organizations,” said IDC’s Matt Eastwood. He described HPE’s strategy for Unified DataOps as promising: “It takes an original approach to solving this burgeoning problem.”

Tom Black is SVP and general manager, HPE Storage.

“HPE is changing the storage game by bringing a full cloud operational model to our customers’ on-premises environments,” said Black. “Bringing the cloud operational model to where data lives accelerates digital transformation, streamlines data management, and will help our customers innovate faster than ever before.”

Channel Opportunity

Black said the launch increases channel partners’ “intimacy and relevancy” with their customers.

HPE’s Tom Black

“We’re giving channel partners the ability to become part of a customer’s cloud transformation,” he said.

“Channel partners will be able to build on value added services on top of this offer. [The] channel partner can monetize a virtual resident engineer for their customers. They don’t have to put that person onsite; you don’t have to VPN in. Literally [putting] their support engineers in a very highly productive environment can create a monetized support experience. You can take that all the way to a full managed service. [This is] because of the cloud model and the ability to create different types of roles inside of the customer’s account with us on HPE GreenLake.

“It expands the opportunity in the services for channel partner to monetize things that were maybe more difficult in years past. [They can also now] be really a sticky part of that cloud conversation with a customer.”

Sandeep Singh, VP, HPE GreenLake marketing, added that partners play “a very significant role” within the firm’s business.

“Nearly 70% of HPE’s annual sales are transacted through HPE’s ecosystem, more than 80,000 partners strong. The HPE channel has also been a significant driver of service growth, and indirect HPE GreenLake orders have increased 85% year-over-year.”