Cloud is not the end of big server vendors: Saar Gillai

BANGALORE, INDIA: Whoever said the rise of the cloud is the end of big server vendors couldn't agree more with Saar Gillai, senior vice president and general manager, HP Converged Cloud. "Cloud deployments require new innovations across server hardware and software," he says with a futuristic note on the growing industry.

Benefits of the Cloud are aplenty and HP is well focused on directing its strategies to meet the increasing cloud demands. That is the reason why a number of HP Software products are being moved to cloud-based solutions.

In an interaction with Deepa Damodaran of CIOL, Saar explains what differentiates HP's solutions from others, cloud priorities and the company's focus.

Excerpts:

CIOL: How much does cloud portfolio contribute to HP's revenue?

Saar Gillai: According to information disclosed at our Securities Analyst Meeting, revenue from cloud grew 39 per cent in fiscal year 2012 to nearly $4 billion. HP estimates that cloud revenue for the company would continue to grow, reaching $8.4 billion by 2015.

HP powers:

Four out of five of the world's largest search engines

The world's largest private cloud, at 50 PB

8 out of 10 world's most trafficked websites

Momentum to date:

875 clouds in 75 countries powered by HP CloudSystem

200+ managed cloud customers in more than 60 countries

50 CloudAgile Partners

CIOL: How important is this portfolio in the current crisis that the company is in?

Saar Gillai: Over the past year, Meg Whitman has repeatedly positioned HP Converged Cloud as a key strategic pillar for the company. In April 2012, HP introduced its Converged Cloud strategy and portfolio and since then, we have continued to build on the company's long-standing cloud experience and provide innovative new solutions. HP built its Converged Cloud to bring together HP Converged Infrastructure (Servers, Storage, Networking), HP Converged Management and Security (Automation, Management, Security), Converged Information and hardened OpenStack technology.

CIOL: Some analysts said that the rise of the cloud is the end of the big server vendors. Your take.

Saar Gillai: The rise of the cloud actually opens new opportunities for server vendors because cloud deployments require new innovations across server hardware and software. HP has embraced the opportunity and not only introduced new server technologies but also full cloud solutions that enable enterprises to build, operate, and consume cloud services seamlessly across traditional, public, private, and managed clouds.

CIOL: So which is your priority: capex model of hardware or the opex model of cloud?

Saar Gillai: HP believes that clients can best meet their business needs using a mix of cloud environments, along with traditional IT. Clients need a mix of services, each with its own requirements for speed, flexibility, cost, security, and availability. These cannot be met by a one size fits all cloud model. HP believes organizations will need to implement a hybrid delivery strategy including a mix of private, public and managed cloud services as part of their IT delivery and consumption strategy.

Therefore, HP Converged Cloud offerings provide enterprises with the essential foundation of technologies and services to confidently build, consume, and manage IT across private, managed and public clouds - with solutions that can support a mix of financial models from capex to opex.

CIOL: Amazon has a seven year head start on the rest of the industry, so how is HP going to make a difference in this space with HP Cloud?

Saar Gillai: The vast majority of services provided by vendors today are aimed at start-ups that need to develop and test applications. The market for these services is relatively mature.

We recently surveyed customers and found that 75 per cent need much more than just "test and develop." They need:

1. An open architecture that allows them the flexibility and agility to not only build and test applications but to run and manage these workloads - either on premise or in the cloud.

2. An enterprise-class commitment from their vendor in the form of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that provide a level of quality and predictability for up-time that is on par with existing IT infrastructure today.

The demand for this enterprise class cloud that provides services in support of running and managing production workloads is a burgeoning market and this is where HP is focused.

CIOL: You are depending a lot on the tag open cloud? How important is that?

Saar Gillai: In the area of the cloud, HP is taking the same approach that we have taken for years in supporting open interfaces and architectures because we believe that customers want to avoid being locked in to proprietary technologies. We are an active supporter and one of the top contributors to OpenStack, a rapidly growing community that is delivering an open and scalable cloud system.

CIOL: How do you plan to close the gap with so called cloud majors in terms of features? Will it be more of acquisitions or building in-house IP?

Saar Gillai: Our approach is from a systems view. By that I mean that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Those parts include: the design, deployment and management of our data centers, our support of and contributions to an open cloud through OpenStack, the support and consulting services we offer, the partners in our ecosystem, the security and support as part of our enterprise-class SLAs.

It is only when you look holistically at our total offering that you can evaluate how we are competitive with other players in the industry.

CIOL: There are many who think virtualization and cloud are one and the same. Can you tell us the difference?

Saar Gillai: Virtualization means that applications and operating systems are not tied to underlying hardware. The cloud brings much more than just a virtualized environment. In a cloud environment, IT services are available in a self-service on-demand fashion, and the deployment of those services happens automatically based on a user's request. Many clouds are built on a virtualized environment, as that often simplifies automating deployment. But to be a cloud environment, the self-service, on-demand capability is also needed.

CIOL: Does HP use HP Cloud and HP CloudSystem?

Saar Gillai: Yes. Various parts of HP are using HP Cloud Object Storage and HP Cloud Compute services as part of their ongoing development and deployment strategies. And a number of HP Software products are moving to cloud-based solutions and joining the growing ecosystem of HP Cloud Services Solution Partners (for example, HP Diagnostics, HP Labs, HP Operations Orchestration and HP Performance Center). 

And all of HP Cloud Services are built on HP Converged Infrastructure and secured using HP's enterprise security portfolio including HP ArcSight, HP Fortify and HP Tipping Point. We also have hundreds of HP employees using HP Cloud Services for development and testing of HP internal projects.