Hewlett-Packard Enterprise today joins the ranks of those infrastructure companies seeking to make the move to the hybrid cloud drop-dead simple. The company is targeting small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with the HPE ProLiant Easy Connect EC200a Managed Hybrid solution (above), a server sold on a subscription basis that combines on-premise computing with management and security in the cloud.

The product is the first in HPE’s new Easy Connection portfolio for SMBs, but it has its roots in the company’s hyper-converged line of systems that combine hardware, software, networking and a cloud computing stack. The platform works with any of the major public clouds and comes pre-installed with the basic operating software needed to get up and running in a few minutes.

Each server is configured to handle between 25 and 50 users and includes the open source Xen hypervisor,  file/print sharing, a basic security suite, local backup, a cloud management platform and ongoing support and 24-hour repair. Customers can optionally add business continuity, Windows Server, remote desktop and advanced security features for an additional subscription fee. HP will sell the package through its partner channel.

Virtualization and cloud management services provided by HPE partner Zynstra Ltd. enable the platform to be managed remotely, with customers paying for either a one-or three-year renewable subscription fee. “It’s essentially a private cloud on the box,” said Nick East, co-founder and CEO of Zynstra.

“Think of it as hyper-converged for the everyman,” added David Sung, director of worldwide SMB server marketing at HPE.

Cloud made easy

The product mimics at a smaller level the Oracle Cloud Machine that the database giant rolled out last month. The overarching theme is to make it simpler for customers to duplicate the capabilities of public cloud services in their own data centers with the ease of remote management and the flexibly to switch back and forth between local and cloud services.

“SMB customers want to take advantage of cloud services, but 90 percent to 95 percent of the apps they run are on premise,” said McLeod Glass, vice president and general manager of SMB Solutions and Tower Servers at HPE. “This allows them to take delivery of the box and provide a complete hybrid server experience.”

HPE said it will provide all security, firmware and licensing needs, including updates, without customer intervention. The company estimates that the subscription model delivers about 30 percent better total cost of ownership than a package purchased on a traditional capital expenditure basis.

Each server will support three to five virtual machines per location and can be mirrored to create a high-availability configuration. A base configuration comes with 128 GB of solid-state disk (SSD) storage, four terabytes of disk storage and 32 GB of memory. The premium model doubles those specs. Pricing will be at the discretion of each business partner.

HP also announced the HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 server with the Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 processor, designed as a low-cost, quiet, compact server for small businesses and priced from $299.