HPE NonStop Corner – one partner’s perspective

As we begin to prepare for the upcoming November event that’s the highlight of the year for the NonStop community which we are now seeing promoted as the NonStop All Digital Experience it’s the ideal time to look back at this year’s HPE Discover Virtual Experience for one last look. This month there was an article published featuring this major HPE event that truly struck a chord. Appearing on the CANCOM blog on August 11, 2020, was the post, HPE Discover 2020 Roundup. The CANCOM Group is a European consulting vendor focused on Digital Transformation (DX). In this post they recognize a change at HPE that few other consultants or analysts reported on – the lack of attention given to hardware.

“Probably the most noticeable difference was that this IT giant – synonymous and sometimes marred with a focus on ‘tin’ – didn’t make any major new hardware product announcements. Instead the focus was on; open-standards-based software, EVERYTHING as a service and consulting services (among other things).

“This change is helping HPE to truly enhance its reputation in driving business outcomes for its customers and partners alike.”

Beginning with an update on Ezmeral – a modern, open-standards-based software portfolio – HPE hinted at what was to come. A concentrated push in support of a new HPE that would be focused on delivering solutions in a manner enterprises have been asking about for quite some time:

“HPE kicked off its theme at Discover – ‘of a move away from hardware discussions to driving business outcomes via software and services’ – with the introduction of Ezmeral, its open-standards-based software portfolio, built on top of Kubernetes. The vision for Ezmeral is; to enable customers to unify the way they deploy and operate container-based workloads, from Edge to Cloud and across virtual machines and/or bare metal … and a clear focus on applications and data across Edge to Cloud, we can see HPE really starting to transform itself and align to the requirements and needs of its customers today.” 

Moving on to GreenLake, which was recently described by the NonStop product management team as best viewed as simply a method of purchasing (from HPE) any combination of hardware, system and operating software, applications and solutions together with services, the post wrote that:

“HPE is building on an already broad and diverse portfolio, to include ‘born in the cloud’ platforms that are powering the move to modern application and data consumption, across Edge to Cloud. If you are you struggling to understand what GreenLake is, the easiest way to think of it is a turnkey managed service for HPE infrastructure.”

Not content with just covering the reshaped software portfolio (Ezmeral), an enhanced way of consuming HPE solutions via purchasing models favoring OpEx (over CapEx), the post then turned to HPE’s services offerings. The CAMCON blog then said:

“Once you’ve chosen to work on open-standards-based software platform, running on mature and proven Edge to Cloud infrastructure AND you’re planning on consuming this all as a Service via HPE GreenLake … you need the right professional services to design, build, deploy and run your new, modern application and data-centric architectures. Enter, HPE PointNext services.”

There you have it – a progression from a software portfolio update to new ways to purchase from HPE to the professional services HPE provides. Ezmeral, GreenLake, PointNext – all programs the NonStop community will begin to see playing a more prominent part in all future promotions coming from HPE. And this includes messages coming from the NonStop team over the next couple of months – not all three of these programs perhaps but touching on several aspects of these programs intended purpose and how NonStop will participate.

Previously I have reported on articles written by Steven Burke, a reporter with CRN. As HPE Discover Virtual Experience came to an end he published an update that highlighted HPE CEO Antonio Neri’s 10 Boldest Statements from HPE Discover Virtual. Having read the post to the CAMCON blog, I turned back to this earlier post and yes, Burke too wrote of GreenLake, Ezmeral, new Cloud Services and the emphasis HPE would now be placing on supporting users as they enter the age of insight. The only time hardware was referenced was an update on the intelligent edge but even here, the focus wasn’t on the hardware but rather, services:

“… we are announcing a new cloud service for the Intelligent Edge. [It is] based on the Aruba Edge Service Platform [ESP] to unify, secure and automate network operations and serve as the foundation for realizing the full potential of the edge.”

Again, no commentary on hardware as there was nothing new announced. This lack of focus on “tin” marks a milestone for HPE and comes at a time when increasingly, NonStop is being viewed as a software offering. Yes, you can still have NonStop delivered to your dock in a traditional system package but as virtual NonStop (vNS) develops momentum, in the coming years NonStop will increasingly be viewed as just another software product in the bigger HPE portfolio of software and services offerings.

Participating in the upcoming NonStop All Digital Experience will, in all likelihood, shine more light on the transition under way within NonStop. You may only catch a glimpse of such a transition in select presentations but it will be there. I am not suggesting that there will be no references made to hardware as I am almost certain that NonStop product managers responsible for NonStop hardware will have their time in the spotlight but as hardware roadmaps do little more than ride the coattails of other HPE product roadmaps, becoming excited by NonStop may be a byproduct of what is covered in NonStop software and services.

NonStop will be playing its part when it comes to demonstrating its prowess in this age of insight, as I have noted in previous commentaries so yes, keep an open mind. But wait, there is a lot more to come so make sure you register for November’s big NonStop event. I will be participating and I hope to “see” you there!

You can always reach me via email at:
Richard@pyalla-technologies.com

All opinions and observations expressed here

are those of Pyalla Technologies, LLC,

and unless otherwise expressly identified,
are not provided by HPE employees.