Hewlett-Packard Co. has reinforced its commitment to the hybrid cloud model with the launch of an updated version of its enterprise-focused, Openstack-based Helion cloud platform.

The biggest news is that HP is restoring Helion’s compatibility with Amazon Web Services, following a decision to drop support for the leading cloud vendor with its first major release last year, in favor of OpenStack.

That compatibility is afforded thanks to the integration of Helion Eucalyptus 4.1, the AWS-friendly cloud environment building software that it acquired at the tail end of last year.

“The addition of Eucalyptus to the HP Helion portfolio gives customers the flexibility to deploy existing AWS workloads onto cloud environments they control (private or managed), addressing demand for cost-effective alternatives to public cloud vendor lock-in,” said HP in its press release.

While prerelease versions of HP’s Helion cloud had included support for AWS’ EC2 APIs and Eucalyptus tools, the company decided against including the features when it officially launched the platform. But with the acquisition of Eucalyptus it was widely expected that HP would incorporate AWS compatibility sooner or later, and now its done so just days after the mysterious ousting of Marten Mickos, formerly the CEO of cloud vendor Eucalyptus, as senior vice president of its cloud business.

Helion Eucalyptus 4.1, which is the first update to the platform since it was taken over by HP, comes with several new features including support for deploying private Eucalyptus clouds based on AWS CloudFormation templates. There’s also the new web-based Helion Eucalyptus Cloud manager tool to look forward to, which offers an easy way for admins to manage S3-compatible storage.

Despite this, HP seems to be infusing support for AWS out of neccessity rather than choice, and it seems clear that OpenStack is still its favorite cloudy horse to back. That’s not surprising given HP CEO Meg Whitman’s earlier decision to invest $1 billion in OpenStack over the next two years, and it’s underlined by the simultaneous release of Helion OpenStack version 1.1.

Helion OpenStack 1.1 brings a number of new enhancements, many of which are focused on integration with other products and services from HP. These include certification for HP ProLiant Gen 8 and Gen 9 plus HP Moonshot m710 and 300 server hardware; integration with HP’s 3PAR StoreServ HA; and compatibility with HP’s ArcSight for centralized logging and analysis of security threats

HP Helion Eucalyptus 4.1, Helion OpenStack 1.1 and the HP Helion Development Platform 1.1 are available worldwide from today, the company said.