We are in a world driven by data, and currently, organisations are facing a daunting challenge in terms of navigating the intricate landscape of hybrid cloud environments. With data visibility, security, sovereignty, and mobility emerging as pressing, concerns, businesses now find themselves trying to strike the perfect balance of keeping on-premises data centres and leveraging the cloud.
The good news is that tech titans like HPE are helping businesses navigate this intricate landscape.
In fact, just recently, HPE expanded its HPE GreenLake cloud data services to further improve customer experience and operational efficiency. The introduction of HPE GreenLake for Backup and Recovery and HPE GreenLake for Disaster Recovery based on Zerto offers comprehensive data lifecycle management and streamlines management across hybrid environments.
Data & Storage ASEAN caught up with Justin Chiah, General Manager of Data Services and Storage for Asia Pacific at HPE, for an exclusive interview about HPE GreenLake’s expansions, particularly their key features and benefits, as well as the evolving trends in enterprise storage.
Simplifying Data Management Across Hybrid Environments
Chiah emphasised, in particular, the importance of having a simplified operating experience for applications and data spanning the edge to the cloud, regardless of their location. The HPE GreenLake platform, built on the HPE Alletra Storage MP, provides unified hybrid cloud virtual machine management, enabling customers to have their cloud experience on-premises.
“Our customers can transform their business based on a data-first strategy, leveraging the cloud as an experience rather than a specific destination,” said Chiah.
In other words, with HPE’s architecture and strategy, customers can now gain control over data management, ensuring seamless operations and maximising the value of their data.
In addition, Chiah highlighted the flexibility and transparency offered by HPE GreenLake, which then help in addressing concerns about potential risks and costs associated with vendor lock-in and lack of control over data management.
Unlike other public cloud providers, HPE GreenLake empowers customers to choose the data location based on security, compliance, and sovereignty requirements. Chiah explained that with HPE GreenLake, customers now can have control and flexibility over how they manage their data.
HPE’s design principles revolve around open standards and systems, enabling customers to avoid vendor lock-in. Moreover, the rich ecosystem of partners and open architecture ensures agility and flexibility, allowing customers to choose the best solutions at competitive prices. HPE GreenLake also provides a unified cloud operating and data management experience, ensuring full control and the ability to migrate data to other platforms when desired.
Making the Right Choice
When it comes to choosing storage solutions, organisations worldwide must consider a plethora of factors. But while product features, capabilities, and pricing are among the most crucial considerations, customers now seek complete solution offerings. In fact, according to Chiah, customers look for technology vendors and partner ecosystems that can deliver measurable business outcomes, enable a competitive advantage, and support their digital transformation journey.
“Long-term partnerships and trust also play a significant role in the decision-making process,” Chiah added. “Customers want reliability, scalability, efficiency, and a solution that aligns with their sustainability goals. HPE’s expanded Alletra Storage Portfolio, coupled with the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, offers a comprehensive range of services to meet these requirements.”
Chiah also pointed out that HPE’s expanded storage portfolio anchored on the HPE Alletra Storage MP offers a truly comprehensive solution for storing, managing, and protecting data across hybrid cloud environments. While competitors typically offer separate block and file storage solutions requiring third-party tools for disaster recovery and data protection, HPE’s approach stands out because it includes the latter in its offerings on top of block and file storage.
“We offer block and file storage on the same hardware platform, along with integrated disaster recovery and backup and recovery,” Chiah explained. “This unique integration is made possible by the HPE GreenLake platform, enabling customers to benefit from a unified control plane and a seamless, cloud-native operational experience.”
The HPE Alletra Storage MP also boasts a multi-protocol stateless architecture, empowering customers with the choice of block storage, file storage, and even other protocols in the future. The architecture of compute and data store disaggregation allows for independent scalability, allowing businesses to start small and expand the platform as their needs grow. This approach eliminates over-provisioning and costly forklift upgrades, making it a sustainable and scalable solution.
Looking Beyond the Cloud
Looking towards the future, Chiah believes that enterprise storage requirements will continue to evolve in the coming years. And this evolution, according to Chia, will be shaped by the increasing adoption of Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) and the preference for a hybrid CAPEX/OPEX operating model.
Furthermore, the explosion of data growth at the edge, coupled with advancements in GPU processors and the growing competition in artificial intelligence and machine learning will drive the need for high-performance file and object storage. These storage solutions will offer significant advantages for processing unstructured data and creating value from it.
Chiah also emphasised that data management, protection, security, privacy, governance, and mobility will remain pivotal in hybrid and multi-cloud environments—as will shared global concerns about sustainability and energy consumption. All these, according to Chiah, are being prioritised by HPE throughout the entire product lifecycle.
HPE’s expanded Alletra Storage Portfolio, in conjunction with the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, represents a significant advancement in data services for hybrid cloud environments. By providing a comprehensive solution that integrates block and file storage, disaster recovery, and backup and recovery services, HPE empowers organisations to store, manage, and protect their data seamlessly.
With a focus on flexibility, control, and transparency, HPE also ensures that customers have the freedom to choose where their data resides and manage it effectively. As enterprise storage requirements continue to evolve, HPE remains committed to providing innovative solutions that address the challenges of data management, protection, and value creation.
On top of all that, HPE demonstrates an ongoing commitment to both its customers and the environment through its ongoing efforts in sustainability and energy consumption reduction.
In other words, with HPE’s expanded Alletra Storage Portfolio, businesses in the Asia Pacific region can embrace the power of hybrid cloud environments, streamline operations, and unlock the full potential of their data—all in the most sustainable ways possible.
