Hybrid cloud solutions have become a key compromise for those seeking cloud transformations, but are hesitant to fully surrender their con-premises solutions. The one major downside to the hybrid cloud is the difficulty of monitoring and maintaining multiple environments on several platforms. A comprehensive, unified, multi-cloud management solution is necessary for a successful digital transformation.
In an effort to bring a multi-cloud management solution to market, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) introduced HPE OneSphere, which the company claims is the industry’s first offering of its kind. HPE OneSphere provides a unified experience across public clouds, on-premises private clouds, and software-defined infrastructure.
In a prepared statement, Ric Lewis, senior vice president and general manager, Software-Defined and Cloud Group at HPE. said that their customers need a radically new approach that is designed for the new hybrid IT reality. He added that “With HPE OneSphere, we’re abstracting away the complexity of managing multi-cloud environments and applications so our customers can focus on what’s important – accelerating digital transformation and driving business outcomes.”
HPE OneSphere Capabilities
Key HPE OneSphere features include:
- Multi-cloud architecture, supporting different combinations of public clouds, as well as on-premises environments
- Unified experience across clouds, sites, orchestration tools, platforms-as-a-service (PaaS) and containers, minimizing the need for specialized skills
- Built-in role-based collaboration Project workspaces designed for IT operations, business users and consumers of IT, such as developers, data scientists, and researchers
- Software-defined and API-driven virtual resource pool
- Subscription consumption model
HPE claims that HPE OneSphere enables IT, lines of business, and developers to work together more effectively and move digital business initiatives forward faster. OneSphere also claims to increase apps-to-ops ratios and give IT operations the tools they need with a self-service design that enables higher productivity. Finally, using HPE OneSphere can help companies understand more about their ROI. The service can give business owners insights for deploying applications to increase utilization and lower costs.
In addition, the HPE OneSphere pay-for-use subscription licensing model complements the HPE Flexible Capacity pay-for-use consumption model for customers’ on-premises infrastructure. With these tools, HPE claims to make it simple and affordable for customers to start with a single DevOps project or manage across a multi-cloud, multi-site enterprise.
Remaining Questions
Alas, HPE didn't particularly mention how MSPs and other types of service providers can potentially leverage OneSphere. And the company's 'first of its kind' claims may be overstated. Companies like CA Technologies, Datadog, Kaseya, New Relic, and SolarWinds (among many others) now offer management consoles that extend from public to private infrastructure. Moreover, VMware has made multi-cloud management its core near- and long-term focus.
HPE OneSphere will be available starting in January 2018.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
