HPE Rolls Out Storage Server for Cloud Data Centers

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By The WHIR

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has completed its open infrastructure portfolio, with an open, cloud-optimized storage server, the company announced Tuesday. HPE Cloudline servers and HPE Altoline network switches for service providers are also being updated to meet the needs imposed on service providers by explosive data growth.

The HPE Cloudline CL5200 is a high-density, multi-node storage server built on open design principles for adaptability and IT integration necessary to multi-vendor management environments. It supports up to 80 large form factor hard drives, for up to 640 TB of storage in a 4U chassis.

HPE cites a 451 Research report suggesting that implementation of managed services and alternative technologies like OpenStack are differentiation opportunities for service providers in the quickly growing and evolving hosting and IaaS markets. That market is set to double by 2019 from $60 billion in 2015, while organizations shift workloads to increasingly specialized infrastructure and application environments. HPE also expanded its partnership with Scality in January, and Scality RING includes certified support for the CL5200.

“Service providers are looking for the operational agility and faster data center integration that comes with deploying open infrastructures, while others value the integrated management and proven deployment capabilities that come with industry-standard offerings,” Reaz Rasul, vice president and general manager, Global Hyperscale Business, HPE said in a statement. “HPE is the only vendor that offers a choice of standard or open infrastructure solutions to accelerate business growth and provide service providers with the flexibility required to scale rapidly and cost-effectively.”

The HPE Altoline 6900 family is being joined by four new switch models, to allow customers to tailor their networking infrastructure to specific application and workload requirements. Service providers will also be able to quickly scale at low cost with any product and avoid vendor lock-in, HPE said.The fastest of the new switches features 25/100 Gbps.

Cumulus and Pica8 can be used as open source network operating systems with HPE Altoline switches, and OpenSwitch support is promised later this year.

Read more: HP Partners With Arista on Data Center Switches

New reference architectures for hyper-scale, multi-data center operations running on HPE Helion OpenStack with Swift represent the company’s commitment to scaling open storage, the company says. HPE touts the solution’s ProLiant Gen 9 servers and its performance to footprint ratio as part of a broader pitch for service provider partners.

That pitch also includes a set of programs and services specifically for service providers, such as HPE Datacenter Care Services for Hyperscale, HP Service Provider Ready Solutions, and HPE Partner Ready Program.

The company’s avowed commitment to open source and design service provider solutions gives HPE a target market to replace the one it lost when it closed its public cloud offering in January. Since that strategic move was announced, HPE has also released a Docker solutions portfolio, and begun selling Microsoft Azure. HPE capped 2015 by presenting its vision of the future for enterprise computing.

This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-adds-to-service-provider-offerings-with-new-cloudline-servers