Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) today extended OneSphere, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for IT management, to include support for Microsoft Azure public clouds and the Kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) that serve as the foundation for OpenStack.
At the same time, HPE announced an update to HPE OneView, a platform for managing IT that can be deployed on-premises or in a public cloud, which makes it easier to manage farms of virtual machines. In addition, version 4.1 of HPE OneView adds support for Microsoft Azure Log Analytics and VMware vRealize Orchestrator, as well as reference configurations for Chef automation software and architecture for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform deployed on top of HPE Synergy, a software-defined infrastructure (SDI) platform.
HPE today also revealed it has sold its one-millionth license for HPE OneView, which it launched four years ago. HPE OneSphere was launched as a suite of SaaS applications earlier this year.
Paul Miller, vice president of marketing for the Software-Defined Cloud Group at HPE, said the bulk for the HPE OneView licenses HPE sold occurred in the last 12 months as organizations realize they need to modernize how IT is managed as they build, deploy and manage their own private clouds. A big reason for increased adoption of HPE OneView is preference for an open platform that is extensible using application programming interfaces (APIs), he said.
Miller said HPE is a bifurcated approach to IT management to give IT organizations the ability to modernize IT in keeping with best DevOps practices, either by continuing to deploy an IT management platform themselves or shift to a cloud service.
In general, Miller said increased diversity in IT environments requires a different approach to managing enterprise IT, which now spans multiple public clouds and on-premises IT environments consisting of both virtual machines and physical servers. There’s a lot more focus on creating a consistent approach to managing IT in way that is seamless across people and processes, said Miller.
Making things even more challenging is the rise of containers, which today run primarily run on virtual machines but increasingly will show up on physical servers as well, once IT organizations master the skillsets needed to manage containers wherever they wind up being deployed, Miller said.
Miller also noted that organizations are finding that complying with a wide variety of regulations, such as the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), are also forcing organizations to revisit how IT is managed.
Many IT organizations are at a crossroads when it comes to IT management. Taking advantage of SaaS applications is often an attractive option because the whole process of updating IT management frameworks is eliminated, along with the need to provision the hardware an IT management application requires. But many organizations still prefer to be able to customize their IT management frameworks in addition to contending with compliance rules that require them to deploy management software in a way they control directly.
HPE clearly wants to remain relevant to IT organizations regardless of the IT management path chosen. The challenge facing those organizations now is making a decision that is likely to dictate how enterprise IT will be managed well into the next decade.
— Mike Vizard
