In their ongoing coverage of Discover 2013, John Furrier and Dave Vellante speak with Scott Weller, VP and GM for HP Technology Services Support. The three discuss cloud usage, OpenStack and security concerns.

Furrier noted that attention to cloud has changed dramatically over a short period of time. He says the forum of Discover 2013 reflects “the reality in the market. […]Just two years ago people would say ‘Cloud is not for me.’ Everyone is contemplating moving workloads of both private and public.”

Weller notes that HP has announced converged cloud support, which allows people to package converged infrastructure for the cloud. Having seen this trend on OpenStack, HP recognized that “customers are at every place on that journey or path…on OpenStack, we’re all in.” He adds that the technology is built on open standards with no lock-in.

Furrier asks about the flexibility customers are afforded in terms of cloud options. Weller responds, “We have a service of four walls and one of the options our customers have is a flexible capacity service as part of the data center care.” This option is especially geared to customers who plan on growth going forward. Presently, HP is in talks with large companies that want to shift to such a model so they can manage their cash flow.

Furrier also asks a very practical question: “Is IT under such pressure that the CIO actually wants to be that cloud broker? Is IT going to embrace this?” Weller believes the basis of these concerns is “the management of change.” One option is to go all in on pooled resources that no single group can control. Weller adds, “Its not like storage specialists go away, but you’re going to have more focus on storage management,” which is really a huge challenge in focus.

An ongoing concern for customers is security, which can get complicated when introducing different cloud options. Furrier notes that when customers get serious about hybrid clouds they can bring in new vulnerabilities as a result of having that type of architecture.

Furrier concludes by asking what’s next for HP services support. Weller responds, “If you’re actually moving workloads out now, we’re actually going to give you a defined experience.” He also notes that the shift to prevention and preemption in security allows HP to sense when there are issues brewing, which they use Autonomy software and data analytics to detect and address. HP will always have service engineers, but they are, in many ways, reducing the manual aspect of such offerings.