HPE Fires Workload-Based Shot At Public Cloud With On-Premises Pay-Per-Use SAP HANA, Big Data, Database, Backup And Edge Services

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Monday kicked off its Discover conference in Madrid by taking its on-premises consumption-based IT pay-per-use model to outcome-based workload application services including SAP HANA, big data, backup, database and edge compute.

The on-premises workload services offerings, which are being sold under the HPE GreenLake brand, provide public cloud pay-per-use economics backed by a comprehensive set of advisory, professional and managed services from HPE's Pointnext consulting organization, including full remote monitoring and management.

HPE Pointnext Senior Vice President Ana Pinczuk said the "next-generation" HPE GreenLake model provides a pay-per-use model with hardware, software, services, usage metering and capacity management with the compliance and control many customers are looking for as they digitally transform their business.

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"This builds upon our pay-per-use infrastructure evolving to pay-per-use outcomes," said Pinczuk. "These are purpose-built congifurations using modern HPE and partner technologies designed, implemented and operated for the customer."

HPE GreenLake is an end-to-end full-service offering that is differentiated from public cloud with on-site consultants and professional services, said Pinczuk. "Nothing against the public cloud, but these are some of the capabilities that you get when you go on-prem," she said.

HPE also unveiled its next-generation ​HPE GreenLake Flex capacity consumption model of on-premises offerings that have been tailored for partners.

The new Flex Capacity bundles – which are being piloted by several large U.S. partners – are HPE Synergy, AzureStack, Gen10 blade servers, 3Par storage, StoreOnce, Converged System 700, and SimpliVity.

The ​HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity offerings have been purpose-built for partners to take to market, said Pinczuk. "The channel is huge for us," she said.

The next-generation ​HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity offers are currently being piloted with a configurator aimed at reducing the time it takes to pull together a Flexible Capacity deal from hours to just minutes, said Pinczuk.

HPE is still hammering out the monetization plan for partners with ​HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity, focusing on the exact terms for partners and HPE in a Flex Capacity consumption-based service, said Pinczuk. "I am not quite ready to talk about that model because we are going through these trials as we speak," she said. "By the end of January, we'll be able to talk a little bit more about the monetization scheme."

Both ​HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity and ​HPE GreenLake workload application services will be available to be sold by partners, said Pinczuk.

The five new on-premises outcome-based ​HPE GreenLake application services are: HPE GreenLake For SAP HANA, an on-premises HANA appliance operated by HPE Pointnext to meet specific customer workload performance objectives; ​HPE GreenLake Big Data, an on-premises pre-integrated Hadoop database based on Hortonworks or Cloudera software; HPE GreenLake Backup, an on-premises backup offering based on Commvault software; HPE GreenLake Database, based on the EDB Postgres open database; and ​HPE GreenLake Edge compute, which HPE is calling an end-to-end life-cycle offering for the Internet of Things.

Pinczuk said the five initial applications services – which were in direct response to customer demand - are just the first shot in what is going to be an ever-expanding array of business-outcome-based ​HPE GreenLake services and even additional advisory services focused on digital transformation. Among the areas Pointnext is eyeing are data mobility and cloud orchestration.

"We are expanding our portfolio," said Pinczuk. "We are going up the stack. We are also expanding our advisory capabilities. So you will see a huge and robust portfolio of HPE GreenLake solutions to come."

Pinczuk said that the acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners in September has been key to providing customers advice on digital transformation. "As customers go through their digital transformation we really need to help them in selecting what the right mix is for them of private and public cloud," she said.

HPE's GreenLake workload-based consumption services are targeted squarely at the business outcomes that customers are demanding in an operating-expenditure-based pay-as-you-go model, said Dan Molina, chief technology officer at Nth Generation Computing, a San Diego-based solution provider that is working closely with Pointnext.

"This make a lot of sense, it's great to see HPE moving into workloads because at the end of the day it is workloads that run the business," he said. "It is the workloads that power our customers' information technology. You have to be very specialized to provide the best technology and service for these specific workloads."

Erik Krucker, CTO at Comport Consulting, an HPE Platinum partner and No. 379 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500, one of the top health-care solution providers in the country, said key to success with GreenLake in the midmarket will be tight engagement with partners like Comport.

"I love the idea of the Flexible Capacity model for workloads," he said. "We can take that Flexible Capacity and layer some of our services on top of it as an ongoing subscription model for us. But HPE really needs to work closely with the channel. The channel are the folks who know these businesses. We are engaged with these customers. If HPE wants GreenLake to be successful, they really need to listen, enable and engage with partners."

Key to success is HPE and partners targeting C-suite executives – including Chief Financial Officers -- who are key decision-makers in consumption-based IT services, said Krucker.

"You can go and talk ones and zeros with the technical guys all day long and you are not going to get anywhere with this model," he said. "You have to talk to the financial people and get them on board and get everyone talking to one another. Odd as it sounds, sometimes the IT people and financial people don't talk to one another. We can help bridge that gap and help customers get to where they want to go. Knowing our customer and putting these complex deals together is where we excel."

With over 70 percent of HPE's Pointnext attach services going through partners, Pinczuk said the channel will be key to driving sales of HPE GreenLake and HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity. "A huge amount of our business goes through the channel," she said. "My call to action to our partners is to continue to work with us, look at the GreenLake offers and be part of the intial seven GreenLake Flex Capacity offers we are bringing to market. It is an amazing opportunity to engage differently with our customers in these pay-per-use offers."