HP takes on Amazon with public cloud offering

April 12, 2012 Off By David
Object Storage
Grazed from GMA.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is aiming to challenge Amazon’s dominance in the cloud service sector, as it launched Tuesday its own cloud service that can take advantage of its data centers.  Tech site BetaNews.com said the service, dubbed Converged Cloud, is similar to Amazon’s Web Services, which it said is so far the largest provider of public cloud access.
 
"HP will offer on-demand instances and virtual machines, and users will pay for the resources they use starting May 10," it said.  But it said whether this public cloud computing push will change the game remains to be seen.
 
Amazon is considered to hold a commanding lead in the space, and other Silicon Valley companies are making plays for what’s left, BetaNews.com said.  Presently, HP already provides private cloud services as well as running data centers for select partners, BetaNews.com said…

 
But until it started its public cloud effort last September, HP did not make a big play for public cloud services.
 
Also, it said two Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings will launch, one of them a storage service that assists in moving data from one instance to another.
 
The second offering is a relational database tool for MySQL.
 
BetaNews.com quoted new HP CEO Meg Whitman as saying cloud computing may be one of the sectors that will return HP to a position of strength.
 
HP hopes cloud computing revenues will lessen the financial pain of falling PC and printing revenues, it added.
 
On the other hand, BetaNews.com said HP is not abandoning the private cloud, citing internal research showing there is a demand in IT for a mix of public and private deployments.
 
It added the new features launching in May can help manage hybrid cloud deployments.
 
Also, HP is offering to manage private cloud deployments for those wishing to outsource.
 
"HP Converged Cloud enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements," said software chief Bill Veghte.
 
New competitors
 
With cloud computing growing by leaps and bounds as of late there is space for new competitors, BetaNews.com said.
 
It cited a 2011 survey by Morgan Stanley showing 28 percent of those surveyed were using the public cloud in their deployments.
 
It expects that number to increase to half of all businesses by 2015.
 
"Those entering the market better be prepared to tackle Amazon head on, both in price and in service offerings, however. AWS was responsible for about $1.1 billion of Amazon’s total $48 billion revenue for 2011, of which about $100 million was profit," BetaNews.com said.

Hewlett-Packard launched a new portfolio of cloud services on Tuesday, dubbed HP Converged Cloud, which could boost sales of its servers and software to large corporate customers.

Cloud computing offers a more efficient use of information technology resources by allowing businesses to access large amounts of stored data and computational power via the Internet.

“There is a new wave of cloud and mobile computing, and big data, and there is a gap between what businesses need and what information technology is delivering,” Bill Veghte, chief strategy officer and executive vice president, Software, HP, told Quentin Hardy of the New York Times.

“HP Converged Cloud enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements.”

HP, which has had four chief executives over the past seven years, has been steadily losing market share to rivals like Amazon, which is thought have one of the largest corporate cloud businesses, and IBM.

However, Amazon only sells access to computing and data storage, not hardware.  And while IBM is a major player in computers, HP’s data storage systems are regarded as particularly strong.  The company’s large-scale automation software is also seen as an underutilized strength.

With Converged Cloud, HP will offer businesses the ability to build their own clouds, or to access public clouds, including a system HP is expected to bring online in a few weeks.

“The offering provides on-demand compute instances or virtual machines, scalable online storage capacity and accelerated delivery of cached content to end users,” HP said.

“As a result, developers are able to deploy services within minutes and pay only for the resources they use.”

“Also on May 10, HP Cloud Services will introduce, as a private beta, two additional Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings: a relational database service for MySQL, and a block storage service that supports movement of data from one compute instance to another.”

Other services in the new portfolio include:

– Cloud Maps, which provides prepackaged application templates that create a customized catalog of application services.

– HP Service Virtualization 2.0, which allows clients to test the quality and performance of cloud or mobile applications without disrupting production systems.

– HP Virtual Application Networks, which speeds application deployment, automates management and ensures network service levels.

The company also launched two new networking services – HP Virtual Network Protection Service and HP Network Cloud Optimization Service – that will improve network security and cloud-based service delivery.

Roughly half of HP’s $130 billion in annual revenue comes from large companies, which tend to wade slowly into new technology.   The company will likely leverage its relationships with large enterprise customers to sell its Converged Cloud services, which emphasize operational flexibility, management control and security rather than cutting-edge technology.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/19

Hewlett-Packard launched a new portfolio of cloud services on Tuesday, dubbed HP Converged Cloud, which could boost sales of its servers and software to large corporate customers.

Cloud computing offers a more efficient use of information technology resources by allowing businesses to access large amounts of stored data and computational power via the Internet.

“There is a new wave of cloud and mobile computing, and big data, and there is a gap between what businesses need and what information technology is delivering,” Bill Veghte, chief strategy officer and executive vice president, Software, HP, told Quentin Hardy of the New York Times.

“HP Converged Cloud enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements.”

HP, which has had four chief executives over the past seven years, has been steadily losing market share to rivals like Amazon, which is thought have one of the largest corporate cloud businesses, and IBM.

However, Amazon only sells access to computing and data storage, not hardware.  And while IBM is a major player in computers, HP’s data storage systems are regarded as particularly strong.  The company’s large-scale automation software is also seen as an underutilized strength.

With Converged Cloud, HP will offer businesses the ability to build their own clouds, or to access public clouds, including a system HP is expected to bring online in a few weeks.

“The offering provides on-demand compute instances or virtual machines, scalable online storage capacity and accelerated delivery of cached content to end users,” HP said.

“As a result, developers are able to deploy services within minutes and pay only for the resources they use.”

“Also on May 10, HP Cloud Services will introduce, as a private beta, two additional Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings: a relational database service for MySQL, and a block storage service that supports movement of data from one compute instance to another.”

Other services in the new portfolio include:

– Cloud Maps, which provides prepackaged application templates that create a customized catalog of application services.

– HP Service Virtualization 2.0, which allows clients to test the quality and performance of cloud or mobile applications without disrupting production systems.

– HP Virtual Application Networks, which speeds application deployment, automates management and ensures network service levels.

The company also launched two new networking services – HP Virtual Network Protection Service and HP Network Cloud Optimization Service – that will improve network security and cloud-based service delivery.

Roughly half of HP’s $130 billion in annual revenue comes from large companies, which tend to wade slowly into new technology.   The company will likely leverage its relationships with large enterprise customers to sell its Converged Cloud services, which emphasize operational flexibility, management control and security rather than cutting-edge technology.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/199Ga)

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