Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) unveiled details of its upcoming HPE | Microsoft Azure Stack solution, an integrated system that will enable organizations to increase agility and flexibility by delivering Azure compatible infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) services from their on-premises data center. HPE also introduced new HPE Consulting for Azure Hybrid Cloud services to help enterprises and service providers successfully implement Azure Stack, as well as enhancements to HPE Flexible Capacity and support for Azure.
Organizations are turning to hybrid cloud strategies that include both private and public clouds to reduce costs and increase flexibility while retaining the control some businesses require. Using Azure Stack powered by HPE integrated systems, enterprises and service providers will be able to realize the speed and simplicity of the public cloud, combined with the cost-effectiveness and security of an on-premises private cloud. Co-engineered by HPE and Microsoft, the HPE | Azure Stack solution will provide enterprises with an Azure hybrid cloud platform in their own datacenter that is compatible with Azure public cloud services.
“Many enterprises would like to host Azure within their data centers for performance, security or compliance reasons and many service providers would like to offer Azure-compatible services for data sovereignty or other targeted services,” said Paul Miller, vice president of marketing, Converged Data Center Infrastructure, at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “HPE is teaming with Microsoft to deliver the right mix of on- and off-premises Azure services with built-in security, operations management, pay-as-you-go pricing and the expertise that provides unmatched flexibility and cost savings for enterprise workloads.”
The HPE | Azure Stack solution will be built on the world’s best-selling server, the HPE ProLiant DL 380, as a complete compute, storage, networking and software system. Using a consistent, uniform portal, IT operators and developers can quickly access both Azure public and private cloud services to rapidly provision cloud resources, build applications, and easily move them between Azure public cloud and Azure Stack running on-premises.
New enhancements to HPE Flexible Capacity expand the ability to include Azure services as part of the pay-as-you-go solution for hybrid IT. In addition, HPE plans to support the HPE | Azure Stack solution within Flexible Capacity for a pay-as-you-go ownership model and unified billing of public and private clouds.
“Microsoft and HPE share a view that hybrid cloud capabilities and consistency across public and private cloud environments helps customers accelerate their cloud strategy,” said Mike Schutz, general manager, product marketing, Microsoft Corp. “The HPE solution for Azure Stack builds off the relationship we announced last year, tightly integrating the hardware, software, support and services to help customers benefit from the pace of cloud innovation while reducing deployment complexity and risk.”
Lower operating cost and complexity
The HPE | Azure Stack solution will be able to deployed together with HPE Operations Bridge software to offer an analytics-driven, automated operations management solution for managing Azure private cloud, Azure public cloud and traditional IT, dramatically reducing operating cost and complexity with features such as causal and predictive analytics, automated remediation and integration with Microsoft System Center.
Additionally, HPE hybrid cloud solutions provide multi-cloud support, allowing enterprises and service providers to manage cloud environments that include Azure, Amazon Web Services, VMware and OpenStack®.
Deliver secure hybrid cloud services
Security is one of the top concerns of customers adopting cloud technology. When deployed with HPE SecureData, the HPE | Azure Stack solution will protect cloud services in multiple ways, securing sensitive data traveling into and throughout the Azure public cloud and Azure private cloud and providing unified security information and event monitoring when deployed with HPE Security ArcSight.
Additionally, since the HPE | Azure Stack solution will exist in an organization’s own datacenter, it conforms to all of its security and compliance requirements. User security controls, Azure private cloud and traditional IT are provided through a unified security and event monitoring.
New expert technical consulting and support services for Azure hybrid clouds
To help customers prepare for a successful deployment, HPE Consulting for Azure Hybrid Cloud provides new advisory and implementation consulting services for Azure hybrid cloud, including security, workload migration, identity, networking and backup and recovery. In addition, global, enterprise-class support for Azure public cloud and hybrid cloud services expand organizations’ IT capacity to innovate by out-tasking monitoring and routine management responsibilities with HPE Datacenter Care-Operational Support Services.
Availability
The HPE | Microsoft Azure Stack solution is targeted for availability in mid-2017. HPE Consulting for Azure Hybrid Cloud services are available now to assist organizations plan their Azure Stack deployments.