Logicalis Unveils Two Cloud Centers of Excellence

The company has built its Cloud Centers of Excellence around the HP CloudSystem Matrix, which, along with the extended HP product line, allows HP and Logicalis to display all the components of a cloud – from servers to storage, networking, software, services and security. Since HP designs the products needed to create and manage a cloud infrastructure, customers can benefit from seeing a total HP solution working in a unified and seamless way.

“Our two new Cloud Centers of Excellence are an investment in Logicalis’ relationship with its customers and an extension of our nearly 20-year relationship with HP,” says Brandon Harris, vice president of HP Solutions for Logicalis. “Building and managing these centers is a significant investment on Logicalis’ part, but it is one that we are confident will give our clients a comfort level with the cloud that cannot be duplicated successfully in any other way.”

The cloud is difficult for customers to envision through discussions alone, but according to Logicalis, once clients see the consoles, “the cloud” is transformed from an ethereal idea into a real set of hardware and software tools working together in a way that makes sense for their business. And, when they see the physical hardware in the demo center, it shows customers that the cloud, while revolutionary, is built on mature platforms, not something risky and unknown. In fact, clients may even recognize that they have some of the very same HP components – blades, storage products, etc. – already in their data centers.

“When they see that, they understand that we’re not suggesting they wipe out their existing data center and start from scratch to realize the advantages of a cloud environment,” says Scott Fog, technical consultant for Logicalis. “They can see for themselves that they can build a cloud on top of existing hardware and make it work with what they have in place. You can actually watch brows unfurl and see them breathe a sigh of relief.”

Because Logicalis has the HP CloudSystem Matrix installed in two demo facility locations, clients realize Logicalis really knows these products, how they function and how to manage them on a day-to-day basis. Logicalis understands the tools and the processes and can actually show customers a geographically dispersed cloud system and how it functions, demonstrating how to use the cloud for important tasks like BC/DR, which leads to significantly more engaged discussions with customers.

“Cloud Centers of Excellence are the ultimate showcase for the HP CloudSystem, the most complete, integrated, open system to build and manage clouds,” says Derek Howard, worldwide channel cloud strategy manager, HP. “Logicalis is able to show our joint customers real cloud solutions built on HP Converged Infrastructure using Cloud Service Automation software.”