In a groundbreaking partnership that started a year ago, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. joined forces with Digital Reality Trust Inc., a leading real estate investment trust specializing in data center investments and colocation services.

Fast forward twelve months, and the collaboration now encompasses an impressive network of over 300 data centers sprawled across more than 50 metropolitan areas in 27 countries. As this ambitious venture unfolds, key trends are emerging that promise to steer the direction of both companies into the future.

“I believe that in most of the countries on the planet, we have seen new factors coming — which are the development of new kinds of applications at the edge in different segments, in different industry verticals that are driving to even more consumption at the edge,” said Xavier Poisson (pictured, right), vice president of the worldwide service providers business at HPE. “The second point that I have seen dramatically, and this is because of the political uncertainty and everything around the consequences of COVID, is all about bringing back the digital asset in countries.”

Poisson and Colin McLean (left), chief revenue officer of Digital Realty, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin at HPE Discover, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the trends around cloud and data center consumption relevant to both companies’ collaboration. (* Disclosure below.)

The view on edge and sustainability in a hybrid cloud world

The recent Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report showed organizational multicloud adoption at 87% and hybrid cloud at 72%. Thus, where data needs to live within a hybrid infrastructure will be determined by that particular use case — making colocation the ideal approach, according to McLean.

“Most often we feel like that’s probably best placed in co-location in some ways because of the varying density requirements that are associated with workloads today,” he said. “We’re not just talking about the AI that’s running high density now to the rack. You’re seeing much more standard enterprise compute that can be 8, 10, 12, 15, 20kW per rack — which is, in many ways, enabled by what you can do within co-location.”

On the sustainability topic, Digital Realty’s solution, which is powered by HPE GreenLake and allows single billing across a hybrid cloud, is a potential game-changer for compliance with today’s government regulations, Poisson added.

“When you combine the two forces of the [companies] in this direction to offer this HP GreenLake-powered solution — one single bill, something really for the customer with these two companies who have done a fantastic job,” Poisson said. “HPE on one side and Digital Realty on the other side, on this sustainable effect, I believe that there is a road to go.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of HPE Discover:

(* Disclosure: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and Intel Corp. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither HPE/Intel nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE