The News: HPE and VMware partner to deliver Hybrid Cloud vision with an announcement outlining the next step in the expanding partner ecosystem of HPE GreenLake and the partnership with VMware. HPE GreenLake and VMware Cloud deliver a fully integrated solution with a simple pay-as-you-go hybrid cloud consumption model. See the full announcement here.

HPE and VMware Partner to Deliver Hybrid Cloud Vision

Analyst Take: At VMWare Explore 2022 Europe this week, HPE and VMware jointly announced the next phase of their partnership, with a view to delivering a fully integrated solution based on a simplified hybrid cloud pay-as-you-go consumption model.

HPE and VMware have a history of co-engineered solutions based on over two decades of close collaboration. For some time, customers of both companies have been able to confidently deploy an enterprise hybrid cloud designed, managed, and supported by HPE and VMware. Combined, the two companies can claim the industry’s largest virtualized server footprint.

Some quick stats on the deployment footprints of HPE and VMware include:

HPE and VMware combined support more than 100,000 global partners
Combined the companies have over 25,000 solution experts
HPE GreenLake supports over 120,000 customers globally
HPE GreenLake supports over two million connected devices
HPE GreenLake has been adopted by nearly 80 percent of the top 100
HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform provides easy access to more than 70 cloud services
VMware commands more than 70% of the global market for virtualization infrastructure software
VMware claims over 500,000 customers globally

Based on the stats above, the companies partnering to better serve their overlapping customers makes perfect sense. Against the backdrop of an increasingly complex hybrid multi-cloud architecture, it’s a given that both companies’ customers will no doubt welcome collaboration that leads to simplification and a more templated deployment model and will be keen to benefit from one platform from which they can automate, orchestrate, and run their hybrid cloud strategy.

HPE and VMware’s new solution will look to increase the speed of adoption and deployment, while simplifying the operational complexity inherent in cloud deployments. The design point for the combined solution is to deliver a simplified, almost turnkey approach to the deployment of a hybrid cloud instantiation that integrates software, infrastructure, and services delivered by a single strategic partner as a cloud service.

This approach ultimately looks to offer customers the flexibility to determine the best environment for operating their hybrid cloud by leveraging the best of both providers solutions. In order to achieve this vision, VMware Cloud can be fully integrated across the HPE GreenLake portfolio, including HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise, with the option to deploy on-premises, in colocation datacenters, or at the edge, and have it all managed by HPE GreenLake.

The announcement today represents the next evolutions of the HPE and VMware partnership and together, the companies are looking to give organizations greater choice and flexibility and deliver a fully integrated hybrid cloud offering, which will enable organizations to simplify operations and deploy cloud architecture more rapidly. The combined partnership will deliver VMware’s multi-cloud software with HPE GreenLake’s cloud operating model and deliver this through a consumption-driven charging model.

As a result of the announcements, VMware Cloud will now be fully integrated with a single consumption and licensing model with HPE GreenLake. Perhaps most crucially, this announcement extends to VMware Cloud for HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise.

True Cloud Consumption on Premises and at the Edge

HPE GreenLake for VMware will provide customers with a fully integrated and modern hybrid cloud deployment model. Customers will benefit from a true cloud model where the ability to purchase only the amount of infrastructure required will be delivered through a pay-as-you-go cloud consumption model.

Another crucial element of the announcement was that HPE GreenLake customers will be able to extend VMware Cloud environments to a variety of edge environments, bringing cloud capacity to locations where heavy-weight enterprise-level cloud deployments have so far not been extended to.

The companies outlined the availability of HPE GreenLake for VMware as becoming available in the first half of 2023.

Looking Ahead

As companies look to deploy hybrid multi-cloud solutions, the elephant in the room is the complexity that can invariably result. Combining infrastructure, software-driven orchestration, and management into a cloud-driven consumption is the desired outcome for many enterprises. Details are light at the moment on the holistic nature of the collaboration, and I expect these to emerge over the next few months as we move toward full availability in the early part of 2023.

Both HPE and VMware’s respective customer bases massively overlap, so I expect this combined approach to gain significant traction with the combined installed base. What will be less clear is whether this combined solution will provide a sufficient incentive for customers to migrate from their existing hardware suppliers and providers of their cloud orchestration layer.

Both companies will be hopeful that the combined offering will resonate with new customers, and I can certainly see this combined solution factoring highly on evaluation criteria for enterprise IT teams going forward.

Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.