The HPE Discover event in Las Vegas has long been a marquee event for technology enthusiasts and industry professionals, but this year the event was truly one for the books.

The inclusion of Atmosphere, HPE Aruba Networking’s flagship show, within the Discover event provided a holistic view of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s expansive ecosystem. Furthermore, the decision to host the keynote at the Sphere, an iconic immersive experience venue, underscored HPE’s dedication to innovation. The event was a platform for significant announcements and set a new standard for tech events, highlighting HPE’s role in accelerating the artificial intelligence industrial revolution. (* Disclosure below.)

HPE Private Cloud AI

At the heart of HPE’s announcements was the introduction of HPE Private Cloud AI. This solution is designed to provide enterprises with an easy pathway to integrate AI into their operations. The Private Cloud for AI acts as an ‘easy button’ for organizations wanting to deploy AI solutions quickly and efficiently.

The Private Cloud AI, fully integrated into the GreenLake platform, promises a seamless setup with just three clicks. This platform offers various configurations, including options for liquid cooling, to meet diverse enterprise needs. The out-of-the-box setup significantly reduces the time and complexity associated with AI deployment, allowing organizations to focus on leveraging AI to drive business value.

HPE has engineered the Private Cloud AI to handle a range of AI workloads, from basic inferencing to advanced machine learning models. The solution’s T-shirt sizing approach (small, medium, large, extra-large) ensures that organizations of all sizes can find a configuration that fits their specific needs. Additionally, the inclusion of OpsRamp for end-to-end observability enhances operational efficiency by providing comprehensive insights into AI environments.

Nvidia AI Computing by HPE

The partnership between HPE and Nvidia Corp. was prominently featured, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joining HPE CEO Antonio Neri onstage. The Nvidia AI Computing by HPE offering builds on HPE’s existing Apollo line and introduces sophisticated AI capabilities. This solution caters to enterprises requiring advanced AI training and inferencing, providing a robust infrastructure for demanding AI workloads.

HPE also highlighted the integration of the Alletra MP storage and HPE GreenLake for File Storage. This comprehensive solution includes Nvidia’s switching stack and NeMo software, ensuring a complete AI and networking package. The co-engineered solution between HPE and Nvidia offers a holistic approach to AI deployment, from compute to networking.

The Nvidia AI Compute by HPE is particularly notable for its ability to support large-scale AI models and high-performance computing tasks. The collaboration leverages Nvidia’s advanced graphics processing units and software stacks, such as CUDA and TensorRT, to deliver unparalleled performance for AI and machine learning applications. This partnership enhances HPE’s AI portfolio and strengthens its position in the HPC market.

AI Operations Platform

To support daily operations, HPE continued on the full-stack AI infrastructure observability and security journey. Leveraging OpsRamp technology, this platform provides visibility down to the GPU level and includes a natural language copilot for operational efficiencies. The AI Operations Platform integrates with Nvidia GPUs, AI clusters, DGX systems, Spectrum X and InfiniBand switches, ensuring comprehensive oversight.

The vision behind HPE GreenLake platforms

The vision for HPE GreenLake is to provide a platform-first cloud experience, ensuring a single cloud for multivendor, multicloud estates. This approach simplifies operations, increases agility and gives customers full control of their data and environments. HPE aims to provide a single cloud for their multi-vendor, multi-cloud estate, which is a single platform that brings common data, common services, common practices across all of their infrastructure as well as workloads.

Customer-centric innovations in GreenLake Cloud

HPE detailed the customer-driven innovations within the HPE GreenLake cloud platform. Some highlighted include the platform’s ability to offer a variety of capabilities for traditional, cloud-native, and AI-native workloads. The integration of OpsRamp for hybrid multi-cloud observability and the addition of sustainability insights and consumption analytics.

One aspect discussed was “GreenOps,” which is becoming more critical with organizations worried about all the AI workloads and how much power they will consume in the data centers. The GreenLake platform supports diverse personas, including ITOps, FinOps, DevOps and GreenOps, catering to the specific needs of various administrative roles.

GreenLake cloud now has more than 4 million connected devices on the platform and more than 1,200 channel partners and managed service providers with access. This extensive network allows HPE to deliver continuous value and innovation to its customers.

HPE KVM virtualization stack

Addressing virtualization needs, HPE’s new KVM virtualization stack offers an alternative for hosting virtual machines, with capabilities for automatic VM migration using Zerto. This solution supports both on-premises and colocation environments and offers a modernization path to Kubernetes via Ezmeral. HPE also continues to support VMWare Cloud Foundations.  The HPE perspective was choice for the customers, going beyond KVM and VMware to include many other infrastructure platforms, such as Red Hat OpenShift to name but one.

Networking innovations

Private 5G is part of the HPE Aruba Networking portfolio following the Athonet acquisition. HPE Aruba Networking announced its plans to integrate P5G management with Wired and Wireless management via Central, aiming to accelerate adoption. A live demonstration at the event showcased P5G deployment in two backpacks for military applications.

In terms of security, HPE is enhancing its offerings with SSE and firewall-as-a-service. The company’s acquisition of Axis positions it well to integrate security solutions into the HPE Aruba stack, further strengthening its portfolio.

The latest generation of Wi-Fi technology, Wi-Fi 7, is being rolled out to leverage the 6-gigahertz spectrum, which has been approved for outdoor applications. HPE Aruba Networking highlighted its IoT gateway technology in access points, enabling organizations to run applications in the AP, connecting to IoT devices via Zigbee and BLE, and providing enhanced indoor location capabilities.

Regarding the Juniper acquisition, HPE refrained from commenting on post-acquisition activities. However, we expect HPE to support both customer bases for an extended period – at least six to eight years. Clearly, Juniper’s strengths in cloud, service provider, data center and AIOps (with Mist) will be leveraged by the HPE Global Partner ecosystem once the deal is closed.

HPE Aruba Networking strengths include Private 5G, Distributed Services (Pensando) capabilities, Aruba Central (now used for GreenLake as well) and Strong AP/IoT capabilities. Of course, this is all just one analyst’s speculation, and we will closely follow the deal as it closes and provide additional information this fall. Also, the current Private AI cloud uses all Nvidia Networking resources; once the deal is closed, we expect HPE to offer a Juniper networking option as well.

Sustainable IT initiatives

Sustainability was a key theme throughout the event, with HPE unveiling its sustainability dashboard and emphasizing liquid cooling technologies. These advancements aim to reduce the environmental impact of AI operations, which typically require substantial power and generate significant heat.

HPE’s expertise in liquid cooling, developed through its work with supercomputers, positions it as a leader in sustainable IT practices. The company’s focus on the circular economy and upcycling of equipment further underscores its commitment to reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainability.

The sustainability dashboard in the Greenlake Console, powered by Opsramp, provides organizations with detailed insights into their energy consumption and carbon footprint, enabling them to make data-driven decisions to improve their sustainability metrics. HPE’s approach includes options for direct-to-chip liquid cooling, significantly reducing the energy required for cooling data centers. This technology lowers operational costs and enhances the performance and longevity of AI and HPC systems.

Storage initiatives

We looked at the company’s progress since the major storage launch in April 2023. This period marked the introduction of HPE GreenLake for Block Storage, File Storage and Disaster Recovery, built on Zerto technology. These launches laid a foundation, leading to continuous momentum and growth, with HPE Alletra MP playing a pivotal role. Since its introduction, Alletra MP has become one of HPE’s fastest-growing products, boasting more than 1,500 deployments.

Although not many new storage products were announced at Discover, HPE’s commitment to innovation is evident through its series of launches over the past six months. These include enhanced support for Nvidia GPUs to accelerate AI scalability, the integration of SimpliVity into HPE’s Private Cloud Business Edition, and the Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault. The strategic expansion continued with support for HPE for Block Storage on AWS and the HPE Timeless program, offering upgrades and significant guarantees such as 100% data availability and data reduction assurances.

The hybrid cloud model is at the core of what HPE has been doing since Antonio Neri announced the Edge-to-Cloud strategy, which HPE has embraced through its GreenLake cloud platform. This platform offers a seamless cloud experience across on-premises, edge, and public cloud environments, simplifying management and enhancing operational efficiency.

Integrating AI capabilities into the storage architecture is a testament to HPE’s forward-thinking approach. This hybrid model is designed to bring AI to the data, leveraging HPE’s robust and secure infrastructure to handle complex AI workloads efficiently.

Equinix and WWT partnerships: expanding reach and capability

In addition to its technological advancements, HPE announced new partnerships with Equinix and World Wide Technology or WWT. These partnerships will facilitate the deployment of HPE’s AI and networking solutions on a global scale. Equinix’s extensive data center network will allow HPE to offer its Private Cloud AI and Nvidia AI Compute solutions in various geographic locations, ensuring low-latency access and data sovereignty.

WWT’s Advanced Technology Center will serve as a hub for enterprises to test and validate HPE’s AI solutions before full-scale deployment. This initiative underscores HPE’s commitment to providing practical and accessible AI solutions, enabling customers to experiment and innovate confidently.

Our perspective

The HPE Discover event was undeniably AI-centric, reflecting the industry’s current focus. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s presence underscored HPE’s strong partnership with Nvidia, which is crucial for its AI strategy. As organizations integrate AI, distinguishing product offerings and quantifying their value will be critical. HPE’s Private Cloud AI promises a differentiated, co-engineered solution with broad deployment capabilities bolstered by partnerships with Equinix and WWT.

Highlighting real-world use cases and the benefits of their AI solutions will be essential for HPE. Additionally, the Juniper acquisition presents opportunities for integrating advanced networking capabilities with AI, further solidifying HPE’s market position.

Overall, we believe that HPE’s strategic focus on ethical AI, real-time data utilization and sustainability positions it well to be a leader in the AI industrial revolution. The event’s announcements signal a robust roadmap, aiming to deliver tangible benefits while addressing the environmental impacts of burgeoning AI technologies.

Here’s the full AnalystANGLE video:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored analysis. HPE sponsored theCUBE’s coverage of HPE Discover, but it and other sponsors have no influence over this and other unsponsored articles.)

Image: HPE/livestream