Two years after Hewlett-Packard Co. split into two separate companies, Antonio Neri was named president and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Under his tenure, the company has streamlined operations, sharpened priorities, simplified the product portfolio and strategically aligned its human capital with key growth initiatives.

Now facing a post-isolation economy, Neri (pictured) is positioning HPE for an accelerating digital economy with an eye to the network edge.

“Customers need a platform from the edge to the cloud to manage all the data and, most importantly, they need to move faster in extracting value from the data, and this is where HPE is uniquely positioned to deliver against those experiences,” Neri said.

Neri spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the HPE Discover event. They discussed the new digital economy, managing the ever-growing edge, what’s coming next for HPE and more. (* Disclosure below.)

The growing edge

Neri spoke passionately about connecting people through technology, reiterating that above all, HPE stands for advancing the way people live and work.

“We have to be able to create a more equitable society and use this technology to solve some of the biggest societal challenges we have been facing,” he said. “The last 18 months has been really hard on a number of dimensions, not just for the business, but for the communities. If we work together, we can use these technologies to bring the community together and to make it equitable.”

Expanding on the need for an inclusive digital economy, Neri pointed out that connecting people is the first step.

“If you are not connected, you’re not going to participate. We cannot afford to create a digital economy for only a few. This is why connectivity has to become an essential service, no different than water and electricity,” he said, adding that he invests time working with the World Economic Forum to educate governments about the importance of having a completely connected nation.

As the number of edge devices approaches the trillions, its data must become increasingly actionable. Gartner expects edge devices to contribute 75% of enterprise data to be processed outside the traditional, centralized data center.

“In the end, it’s about acting where the data is created and bringing that knowledge and that inside to the people who can make a difference real-time as much as possible,” Neri said. “That’s why I start by connecting things by bringing a cloud experience to that data, wherever it lives, because it’s cheaper and it’s way more economical. And, obviously, there are aspects of the latest in security and compliance. Then ultimately accelerate that inside into some sort of outcome.”

To extend their reach from the edge to the core of the cloud, HPE has been using Aruba as their main platform, giving companies access to network monitoring tools from mobile devices regardless of their location.

Next for Neri

Neri has been at the heart of HPE’s ongoing evolution, rearchitecting its solutions for a future of edge computing. Initiatives such as GreenLake and Aurora have contributed to HPE’s turnaround, which saw a recent return to revenue growth for the first time since 2018. The company has reported a 17% increase in revenue from 2020 for its Intelligent Edge revenue, signaling HPE’s revised services strategy could be paying off.

Next for Neri is improving efficiencies for data security. “Today, on average, it takes 28 days to find a bridge in your enterprise with Project Aurora, which we’re going to make available by the end of the year,” he said.

With as-a-service models becoming increasingly attainable and sustainable, HPE announced in 2019 plans to go entirely SaaS-based by 2022. As HPE’s competitors start to adopt similar service models, it’s clear their vision of a subscription-based data economy is coming to fruition.

“However, we have to move much faster than ever before, and that’s why we constantly looking for ways to go further and faster,” Neri said. “We need to align our internal processes to think cloud first and data first versus infrastructure.”

HPE uses a consistent, transparent financial report, called the annual revenue run rate, to measure its progress and growth.

Reducing consumption is also a priority for HPE, aiming to make all services available as a service by 2022, without major migrations or lock-in. HPE takes an “open approach, and we have a true edge-to-cloud architecture. We are focusing on what is the most valuable aspect for the customer, which is ultimately the data,” Neri explained.

High sustainability is also attractive to shareholders in addition to securing a safer future.

“Shareholders now want to invest in companies that care about how we make not just the world more inclusive and equitable, but also how we make it more sustainable. And with our technologies, we can make the world way more sustainable with circular economy, power efficiency, and so forth.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE Discover event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for HPE Discover. Neither HPE, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE