HPE introduces VMware services on GreenLake

HP Enterprise (HPE) has been aggressively promoting its GreenLake IT consumption model since it was introduced last year. GreenLake is a pay-per-use consumption model where the customer does not take ownership of the hardware but merely leases it and pays only for their use, which is metered.

Consumption models have become popular among OEMs looking to keep customers that are anxious to get out of owning expensive assets, such as servers. Dell EMC has its own program called Flex on Demand, and Lenovo has ThinkAgile CP.

HPE, though, is really invested in this model. At the HPE Discover show in June, the company announced it intends to deliver its entire portfolio as a service by 2022, letting customers lease everything through the GreenLake model.

Thus came the next step. At the VMworld 2019 show, HPE announced a partnership with VMware to integrate GreenLake and HPE’s Synergy composable infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation, offering an integrated cloud infrastructure that combines compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management, enabling enterprises to run workloads in both private and public clouds.

For its part, VMware said Cloud Foundation helps customers transition to an as-a-service model, becoming a service broker and provider of technology services to the business simply and easily. Cloud Foundation can manage multiple clouds with a single infrastructure team and build a consistent infrastructure across public and private clouds.

Both companies stressed three points:

1. Cloud economics: Customers pay for what they use and plan capacity ahead of use to avoid overprovisioning and save on TCO.
2. Speed and agility: HPE Synergy allows customers to compose resources to dynamically configure them to meet the needs of VMware Cloud Foundation workloads and scale when needed. HPE says with GreenLake capacity management, TCO can be lowered by up to 30% and the time to deploy global IT projects is reduced by as much as 65%.
3. Control, security, and workload optimization: Customers can use the HPE Right Mix Advisor to identify which workloads and applications are ideal to move to public clouds or keep in private clouds, and how to migrate those workloads to achieve the optimal mix of hybrid cloud.

HPE said the new GreenLake VMware Cloud Foundation service will be available in 45 days.