HP unveils billion-dollar cloud investment plans

HP has today revealed plans to invest more than US$1 billion to support and deliver new open source cloud products and platforms, available through HP Helion.

Billed as a portfolio of cloud products and services, the tech giant says HP Helion will enable organisations to “build, manage and consume workloads in hybrid IT environments.”

HP Helion incorporates existing HP cloud offerings, new OpenStack technology–based products, and professional and support services under a unified portfolio to help meet customers’ specific business requirements.

“Customer challenges today extend beyond cloud,” says Martin Fink, executive vice president and CTO, HP.

“They include how to manage, control and scale applications in a hybrid environment that spans multiple technology approaches.

“HP Helion provides the solutions and expertise customers need to select the right deployment model for their needs and obtain the greatest return for their investment.”

HP also is extending its commitment to OpenStack technology and hybrid IT delivery—spanning traditional IT, public, private and managed clouds, with the company planning to invest more than $1 billion over the next two years on cloud-related product and engineering initiatives, professional services and expanding HP Helion’s global reach.

As part of the HP Helion portfolio, HP is introducing several new cloud products and services, including HP Helion OpenStack Community edition - a commercial product line of OpenStack that is delivered, tested and supported by HP.

Available from today, the community edition is a free version while an enhanced commercial edition will be released in the coming months.

Also unveiled is the HP Helion Development Platform, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) based on Cloud Foundry, offering IT departments and developers an open platform to build, deploy and manage applications. HP plans to release a preview version later this year.

Other notable new cloud products and services include:

• HP’s OpenStack Technology Indemnification Program

Designed to protect qualified customers using HP Helion OpenStack code from third-party patent, copyright and trade-secret infringement claims directed to OpenStack code alone or in combination with Linux code.

• HP Helion OpenStack Professional Services

A new practice made up of HP’s team of consultants, engineers and cloud technologists to assist customers with cloud planning, implementation and operational needs.

HP Helion OpenStack–based cloud services will be made available globally via HP’s partner network of more than 110 service providers worldwide.

HP also plans to provide OpenStack-based public cloud services in 20 data centers worldwide over the next 18 months while enabling HP PartnerOne for Cloud partners to deliver and resell OpenStack-based cloud services.