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| Charles Fowler |
This past week I attended Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE)
Discover 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. Discover is HPE’s annual customer and partner
conference where HPE showcases new products and services. The conference lasts
3 days and is broken up into focus areas and general sessions. This was my
first year attending as a partner rather than a HPE employee. The experience was
not much different other than I hosted 4 clients vs the average 12 clients
while employed at HPE which made it a bit more relaxing and fewer logistics for sure.
The general session concentrates on HPE’s direction and how
they are solving the current needs of a digital world. This year’s general
session focused primarily on Hybrid IT, Generation 10 Servers, and Project New
Stack. Meg Whitman, HPE’s CEO, is focusing her efforts on 3 key areas: Digital
Transformation, Hybrid IT, and the Intelligent Edge. These are all areas where
Whitman sees the potential for tremendous growth in a world where everything
computes. HPE’s recent acquisition of SimpliVity and Nimble were also mentioned
in her keynote but, were not primary topics of conversation. There was a hint
that those two technologies may be instrumental in HPE’s composable
infrastructure solutions of the future. Whitman stated that HPE has seen a 30%
revenue gain in all-flash storage last quarter and they are expecting that number to
grow with the acquisition of Nimble. Whitman said while cloud computing is
certainly a fit for some companies, HPE can deliver those same services in a hybrid
cloud at a fraction of the cost. HPE believes more and more people are moving
away from the cloud due to lack of control, security, performance, or cost.
Whitman was not recommending that customers pull the plug but rather invest in
a hybrid model that has all the benefits of the public cloud without some of the
pitfalls. Additional cost savings may be realized using HPE’s Flex Capacity
consumption model, which was also discussed in multiple keynotes and breakout
sessions during the week.
The Intelligent Edge was another focus area for
Whitman, claiming a 30% increase in Aruba revenue over the last consecutive 7
quarters. As a partner, and former HPE employee, I can attest to that growth as
I have seen a huge amount of Cisco customers moving over to Aruba, both on the
wired and wireless networks. Aruba has jump charged HPE’s network business with
no signs of it slowing down. While Aruba has mostly been present on the network
edge, they will be releasing a new core switch that will be available for
purchase soon. Whitman’s point about the intelligent edge was that everything
will one day be internet connected, placing more importance on the edge that
supports those devices. The internet of everything (IOT) is well underway.
Whitman next introduced Clark Golestani, Global CIO and
President of Emerging Business at the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck. Golestani
was very complimentary of the products and services provided by HPE. He went on
to say that he was doing business with HPE based on the quality of their
products, capabilities to support his company, ability to respond, and
security. Golestani emphasized Merck’s pathway to hybrid cloud stating that
Merck could not risk their business or the welfare of their clients on a cloud
only model, supporting the hybrid direction Whitman announced during her
keynote.
Next, Whitman introduced Antonio Neri (Exec VP and GM of
HPE’s Enterprise Group). Neri focused on the complexity of Hybrid IT. He
mentioned HPE’s commitment to simplify hybrid IT by helping customers define
the right hybrid mix using Pointnext software, power the right mix utilizing
the HPE ecosystem, and optimize the right mix with consumption models. The
point being, companies will now have a mix of traditional IT, private cloud,
and public cloud. The challenge will be managing all 3 of those efficiently.
Neri introduced Alain Andreoli, SVP and GM of the HPE Data
Center Infrastructure Group. Andreoli spoke about the new Generation 10 Proliant
servers, touting the inherent security features built in to the silicon of each
new Gen10 server. Neri touted HPE as being the first to incorporate this into
their servers. He also spoke about active protection and recovery, a technology
that constantly monitors the server for malicious behavior through machine
learning. Neri mentioned Niara, a recently acquired security company, as being
behind some of these security improvements. There was also mention of an
end-of-life security feature that would make it impossible to recover data from
retired servers.
All in all, it was a great event. It was a good mix of
education and entertainment. Getting ahead of what is coming can never be a bad
thing. It would have taken me weeks to learn everything I was able to cover in
just few days at HPE Discover. The shear amount of equipment and resources they
dedicate to this event is amazing. While I find the breakout sessions useful,
it is the technology expo and the keynotes I enjoy the most. My purpose for
attending is to learn about existing and future technologies, and a general
understanding of how these are being applied to make a positive difference in
our everyday lives. If you have not attended HPE Discover, I recommend you
consider attending in the future. As the Director of Sales at Convergent
Technologies Group, it would be my pleasure to host you at the 2018 Discover.
Cheers
