Hybrid cloud is the future. HPE is loudly proclaiming this message during Discover. Whether in the cloud or on-premises, HPE wants to be where your data is.

During HPE Discover we will experience a world first. Antonio Neri will go down in history as the first CEO to hold a keynote speech in the Las Vegas Sphere. No one wants to miss this moment: the search for the best seat begins an hour before the event begins and photos, videos and selfies are often used as proof of attendance. When you see the visual spectacle, you can hear the amazement.

Neri immediately tries to captivate the audience as if he were a rock star ready to play the show of his life. “With artificial intelligence, there are no limits to intelligence. But we have to be aware of the risks. We need AI technology that we can trust. “We want to be the stewards of AI,” are his prophetic opening words.

The audience listens attentively to Neri, but the many lights that can be seen during the keynote also show that some viewers are more concerned with getting the best possible picture of what is happening on the Sphere’s impressive 16K LED screen.

Mutual love with Nvidia

At the end of his show, Neri has one more surprise in store. None other than Jensen Huang, who Neri says “needs no introduction,” takes the stage. Huang travels the world to appear as a guest at conferences and was happy to accept HPE’s invitation to speak at Sphere. After a warm hug from Neri, Huang further energized the room by shouting “HPE” with his fist clenched.

The presence of the Nvidia boss is no coincidence. Nowadays, every major technology company wants to appear in public with Nvidia in order to profile itself as a serious AI party. Neri, who nevertheless predicts competition for Nvidia, also praises him. However, it turns out that the love is completely mutual. Both companies have been working together on supercomputers for years and have now found each other again around GenAI.

The latest child of the successful marriage is the newly announced Private Cloud AI. Huang: “We are experiencing the biggest computer transformation in sixty years. Artificial intelligence consists of three layers: models, computers and data. In practice, each layer requires a stack. This is incredibly complex. The entire stack has been reinvented to produce intelligence at scale.”

“Implementing AI has never been easier. Many companies waited because it was complex, but now there is no need to wait. Data is everywhere. If data is not connected quickly, its value diminishes. AI needs a hybrid cloud,” adds Neri.

We are witnessing the greatest computer transformation in sixty years. Software has been reinvented to produce intelligence on a massive scale.

Jensen Huang, CEO Nvidia

Start and end with dates

This last sentence aptly sums up HPE’s philosophy. The company has been an advocate of a hybrid IT infrastructure for many years, with equal consideration of cloud and on-premises. In 2018, Neri predicted that the hybrid cloud would be the future. At the time, he was not laughed at for this statement, but today these words no longer sound nearly as radical. The CEO is making a name for himself with a broad smile.

“Workloads need to move towards data, not the other way around,” we hear from Fidelma Russo, CTO at HPE. “Many organizations don’t know how to use their data and where to process that data. Do they want to move to the public cloud and if not, how do they modernize the on-premises infrastructure? These are complex questions. The conversations we have with customers often start and end with data.”

Hybrid by design

HPE Greenlake is not just a hybrid cloud, but hybrid by design. Hang Tan, COO of the Hybrid Cloud Division, explains why these two words are so important. “In the past, companies viewed on-prem as a barrier to innovation and therefore looked to the public cloud as a way out. In practice, this resulted in fragmentation and lock-in. In theory, the IT infrastructure may have been hybrid, but this happened by accident and without being aware of the benefits.”

“We represent a new approach where hybrid is built in from day one,” Tan continues. “We try to help customers understand which applications are better left on-premises and which can go to the cloud without creating IT and security silos. If you follow the hybrid cloud playbook, you will discover the benefits it offers in terms of flexibility and cost savings.”

Are you immune to being locked into a hybrid cloud? Tan has a fitting answer to this question. “Wherever possible, we support open standards. There is no point in developing our own standards if they do not add value. In addition, GreenLake is a multi-vendor environment where our own services are available alongside those of third parties. We do not want to force products on customers: it is not a ‘take it or go’ principle.”

“Based on this logic, we are convinced that AI is the ultimate hybrid workload,” Tan supports his CEO. “It is a misconception that AI has to be in the public cloud. That may be for training now due to the shortage of GPUs, but I am confident that this is only a temporary phenomenon. Once you run the models, you need to refine them with your own data, which for many companies is on-premises. At some point, the AI ​​has to come to the data.”

“It is a misconception that AI has to be in the public cloud.”

Hang Tan, COO Hybrid Cloud HPE

Network as a silent force

Orange tones also stand out against HPE’s green on the exhibition floor. The subsidiary Aruba Networking held its own conference at a different time until last year, but according to David Hughes (Chief Product Officer), this made little sense. “There was already a lot of overlap between the visitors and partners present. That’s why we decided to combine the two events this year.”

Aruba Networking did not come to Discover to play an additional role. Neri also had words of praise for the network specialist in his speeches. Hughes explains why: “There are three critical pillars in IT today. There are computers, storage and then the network that connects everything together. A lot of things happen at the edge and that data needs to be connected to the cloud and local data centers. The network is the backbone that makes this possible.”

We previously met Hughes at MWC to talk about the impact of AI on the network. This time, we reverse the order and ask Hughes why AI needs a network. “AI works with big data. But you have to be careful: you might prefer to keep some information private. The network is building a secure architecture around AI. People think of Aruba Networking as a network company, but security is always our first priority.”

The network is the backbone of IT.

David Hughes, Chief Product Officer HPE Aruba

The world is hybrid

Aruba Networking may soon have a stepsister. Juniper Networks, which was acquired in January, is not yet physically visible on Discover, but its name is heard regularly. Neri sees the acquisition as the next step in “completing the hybrid cloud.” The UK may yet be able to put a stop to that.

Hughes: “I can’t say more than what Antonio has already said about the acquisition, but both Aruba and Juniper have a five to six billion dollar networking business. If you add that together, you potentially double your business. The acquisition will further change the perception that HPE is more than just a computer company.”

HPE has pulled out all the stops to get this message across. The confidence that Neri and his colleagues exude shows that the hybrid world that the company envisions is also increasingly being accepted in the market. For HPE, it is neither on-premise nor cloud. The company wants to be wherever your data is.