HPE adds storage as a service to GreenLake
Vendor describes decision to widen the options in its subscription offering as a positive for its channel base
HPE has added storage as a service to its GreenLake cloud services offering and is expecting its channel to pick up the baton and embrace the additional functionality it is now offering.
The firm boasts 80,000 partners globally, with 70% of its revenues coming from partners, and has been using its GreenLake subscription model as a major channel play. The vendor has seen channel-driven orders for GreenLake increase by 85% year over year.
Its latest addition to GreenLake includes a data services cloud console, which gives partners the option to deliver operational agility and unified data operations as a service; data services that include software subscription options and automated infrastructure management tools; plus HPE Alletra, a portfolio of cloud-native data infrastructure that works with data at the edge.
Tom Black, senior vice-president and general manager of the storage business at HPE, said it wanted to give customers choice and provide partners with options. “We are giving channel partners the ability to become part of a customer’s cloud transformation journey, so it increases intimacy and relevancy,” he said.
“It expands the opportunity for services, for the channel partner to monetise things around performance and efficacy that were maybe more difficult in the past,” added Black, saying partners would now have a stickier relationship with customers and be part of the cloud conversation.
“HPE is changing the storage game by bringing a full cloud operational model to our customers’ on-premise environments,” he added. “Bringing the cloud operational model to where data lives accelerates digital transformation, streamlines data management, and will help our customers innovate faster than ever before.”
Black said the latest steps were part of a commitment that HPE had embarked on a couple of years ago to provide its portfolio on an as-a-service basis for partners and customers.
“We’ve focused on that cloud operational experience and focused on that cloud business model and on giving customers flexibility and letting them choose how they want to engage and participate with us as a strategic cloud vendor,” he added.
Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE, said it had reacted to customer demand for an easier way to handle their data.
“Organisations face a complex web of fragmented hardware, software and manual processes, making it difficult for them to compete and innovate in a constantly changing marketplace,” he said.
Neri added that the storage-as-a-service tools would help customers access and manage data, wherever it resided across their infrastructure. “As we enter the ‘age of insight’, HPE is providing the ideal platform for organisations seeking to apply distributed data to fuel AI [artificial intelligence] initiatives, deliver new customer experiences and drive digital transformation.”
