In the hardware market, data storage systems have traditionally been known simply as “storage,” with the data part forgotten. But these days data isn’t stuck in a box and left to sit. It’s a mobile, active asset that is driving value for the business.

Reflecting the new world order of data dominance, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Storage has two subdivisions: the old — data infrastructure — and the new — cloud data services. Working in unison, they create a unified cloud platform that makes hybrid cloud adoption simple.

“Certain data services come with the platform layer; certain data services are software only,” said Omer Asad (pictured, left), senior vice president and general manager of data management software-as-a-service, infrastructure and hyperconverged infrastructure at Nimble Storage, acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. “But all the data services that we provide are hybrid in nature, where when you provision storage, you can provision it on-prem[ises], or you can provision it in a hyperscaler environment.”

Asad and Sheila Rohra (pictured, right), SVP and GM of data infrastructure business at HPE, spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Dave Vellante and John Furrier at HPE Discover, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the transformation of HPE Storage and how the company has simplified managing data in a hybrid cloud environment. (* Disclosure below.)

Hardware still matters, but customer experience triumphs over all

HPE’s primary and secondary storage solutions, such as 3PAR, MSA SAN, and Nimble Storage Arrays, are still the backbone of its business, but the traditional block storage and data protection devices have been “wrapped up” into cloud data services offered through the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform.

Listening to customer feedback that “cloud has won,” HPE flipped its operational roadmap from storage vendor to data services vendor and is now delivering abstracted hardware in an as-a-service model through HPE GreenLake. The result is that the customer gets storage how they want it – whether that is in the cloud, on-premises or at the edge — all with plug-and-play simplicity, according to Asad.

“Some services like data protection services are software only, some services are software plus hardware,” he said. “The hardware and the platform come along from the primary storage business, and we run the control plane for that block service on the GreenLake platform.”

The key thing to remember, according to Asad, is that HPE differentiates from traditional as a service because the cloud consumption model and cloud operation model are built-in together. This fulfills HPE’s aim to make hybrid cloud adoption simple, allowing users to access data services without having to worry about where the data is stored.

“Hardware still matters, but what matters more is the experience, and that’s what we want to bring to the customer,” Rohra stated.

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 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE