One player to rule them all?

While the business world is still trying to figure out hyperscale and how it factors in their current infrastructure and computing needs, IT players are already making a move to dominate this segment of the tech market. While Amazon (through AWS) is not taking a stand highlighting their focus towards hyperscale technology, HP has made their launch of the Moonshot server a big event, organizing a one day conference around their announcement introducing the world to their new technology.

The general feeling regarding Moonshot and hyperscale (which still comprises Cloud Computing to some extent) is that the technology in itself is impressive, every metric made public has a huge wow factor, yet the industry and the business world still have to warm up to it. Just like smartphones, we first had no clue what to do with them, and then we couldn’t live without them. However, being always connected was a way of life we were able to grow accustomed to, while the need for improved computing capabilities is a reality we all have to acknowledge. The amount of data needed to be gathered, stored, processed, transferred, and interpreted is growing exponentially, more so as we find new and practical ways of using it to improve  our lives.

The need for a new generation of servers is evident; one only has to take a look at the future needs (estimated at 8-10 million, which would need to be powered by roughly the equivalent of what it’d take to power 2 million US homes). Unless we want to see all the power plants needed to take on this rising demand in electricity furiously built, new power-efficient technology is the way of the future, and HP seems to be holding the key to that particular problem with Moonshot – marketed as being able to save 89 percent of average energy costs.

While Moonshot was being released, the media portrayed HP’s move as a desperate attempt to save itself, or as a bad move that could compete with its older solutions. Given the high demands for computing power, hyperscale technology is not a whim, but a must, if the tech industry still plans to foresee future requirements and meet them with viable solutions before the need becomes dire.

First line of combat: Data centers and Big Data

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If one thinks scale and cost effectiveness in the data center and Big Data sectors, replacing a few rooms of servers with a few chassis filled with the new Moonshot server, sounds like an opportunity to jump on, there’s still a few things to consider. This new technology comes with its very own caveats, as it still needs some development and improvements to become a solid solution for most data centers.

AWS, on the other hand, already taps into its own experience with building an infrastructure fit to support massive, global web services. Amazon was a player in hyperscale before the term was even used in the tech industry, and it was also an early contributor to the open source code that scale-out technology is built upon.

The golden egg of enterprise

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Enterprise is an altogether different battlefield. HP, a traditionally leading player in the servers market, has already built relationships in the business world, providing its solutions to companies across the globe. A promise of professionalism, support and customization when needed, along with significant savings when it comes to both acquiring the new tech and powering its usage in the future, might be more than enough to convince CIOs and CTOs that HP should still be their first choice. No matter how open and forward thinking we’d like the business world to be, the truth is, the comfort of what is known is always appealing.  Thus new tech from a known partner is easier to swallow than testing out a new IT provider.

While Amazon is a big enough name not to need extensive efforts put into convincing enterprises it knows its hyperscale technology better than anyone in the market, AWS is just now turning its in-house solutions into enterprise-ready products. As AWS is growing at a dazzling rate, it holds enough aces up its sleeve to compete with HP’s long-term relationships, and make its move to become an enterprise standard.

Riding the green wave

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Whether we’re talking energy-saving servers or cloud computing technology, the trend, be it a higher state of human consciousness or a marketing ploy, is to pay attention to the environment and heavily promote everything aimed at keeping with the green movement. Protect the planet and stay profitable, as opposed to greedily aiming for the biggest and cheapest, regardless of the consequences — that’s where the tech industry is heading. With its enormous energy-saving statements, HP has temporarily monopolized the eco-friendly scene.

We’re all curious to see who turns out to be the big winner in hyperscale. Will it be HP?  Will Amazon take the lead, or will some other player piggybacking on the advancements already made by early players snatch up the biggest market chunk? For now, partnerships, open source projects, the race for standardization, as well as marketing strategies will play as big of a role as the hyperscale technology itself.