UPDATED 14:30 EDT / JUNE 23 2020

CLOUD

Edge and hybrid are central to HPE’s strategy as it rolls out new products

Recent announcements from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. have been clearly focused on furthering its edge and hybrid cloud strategies.

Earlier this month, the company announced Edge Orchestrator, a software-as-a-service offering designed to help telecommunications firms deploy edge computing services. HPE is both an investor and customer with edge-computing hardware startup Pensando Systems Inc. And HPE’s chief executive officer, Antonio Neri, has been outlining the company’s edge strategy and direction for well over two years.

“We are an edge-to-the-cloud, everything as-a-service company,” said Kumar Sreekanti (pictured, left), chief technology officer and head of software at HPE. “We provide simplified, automated, secure solutions no matter where your execution needs are. You don’t have to take your data where the compute is; you can take compute where the data is.”

Sreekanti spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the HPE Discover Virtual Experience event. He was joined by Robert Christiansen (pictured, right), vice president of strategy at the office of the CTO at HPE, and they discussed HPE’s initiatives for the hybrid cloud, the role of acquisitions in its strategy, container platform offerings, and the importance of speed to value. (* Disclosure below.)

Accelerated transformation

When Neri committed $4 billion to edge technologies and services two years ago, he highlighted movement of the information-technology world toward a hybrid cloud model. HPE’s moves since then, including enhancements for its GreenLake platform, have been designed to position the company along a similar path.

“We have to be able to bring a platform into our client’s organization that has the same behavioral characteristics of the same cloud experiences that people expect in public,” Christiansen explained. “Without having that, you don’t have a platform in which you can have an accelerated digital transformation. What we introduced a while ago was a platform near our clients’ applications and data that gave them an ability to move quicker.”

HPE is also executing is strategic vision through acquisition. In 2018, HPE purchased Plexxi Inc., a provider of software-defined data fabric networking technology to enable hybrid cloud environments. The company also acquired Scytale Inc. in February, a firm that offered service authentication across on-premises, container and cloud infrastructures.

“We have a new, interesting combination of security and authentication pieces to our Scytale organization,” Christiansen said. “And we have brought in strong networking services through Plexxi as well. These all come together to continue to drive our solution on-premises that provides a world-class set of services.”

Fresh, open-source Kubernetes

In November, HPE introduced its Kubernetes-based platform for both bare metal and edge-to-cloud deployments, following the integration of Blue Data and MapR into its Container Platform.

“We are not bolting Kubernetes to any old technologies,” Sreekanti said. “It’s fresh, built-in, open-source, as-a-service, and can run on any platform that you choose.”

HPE is intent on gearing its comprehensive enterprise solutions to help large firms and smaller businesses that may not have large IT staffs or budgets.

“Edge is different for everybody, and HPE is providing a holistic view of our compute and our storage and solutions,” Christiansen said. “What we ultimately want to provide for our client is one opportunity to solve a bunch of problems they would otherwise have to stitch together themselves. It’s really about value and speed to value.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE Discover Virtual Experience event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the HPE Discover Virtual Experience. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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