Data Puts HCI & Private Cloud In the Hot-Seat

A significant amount of emphasis is being placed on how organisations are adapting to the “new digital norm”. Organisations from an SMB level, all the way through to the enterprise, are asking the question: how adaptable are our people, process and systems?

At the heart of every digital transformation is an IT transformation – so to understand the change, assessing how IT investment is shifting is a critical element to the puzzle.

James Eagleton, General Manager for storage and hybrid IT, South Pacific at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has been monitoring this investment both first hand and via market data, and is intrigued at where the market is heading.

“It goes without saying that when we look at infrastructure requirements at the moment and what we are seeing from customers, we see three key categories. Public cloud, private cloud, and traditional on-premise infrastructure.”

“What I find quite compelling though is that IDC results released at the start of the year noted that by 2022 $460b is going to be spent as private as-a-service infrastructure worldwide. This investment compares to the $105B that spent on public cloud during that same period.”

The reality of IT investment is this – although public cloud continues to gain momentum (and is expected to do so over the next five years), private, as-a-service infrastructure, will account for 58% of all IT infrastructure investment by 2022, an increase by 12% from 2019.

Eagleton believes this is because businesses want to start to consume their technology, as opposed to own it. With the proliferation of information, and the need for businesses to compute closer and closer to the edge, being able to scale with the flexibility of public cloud is crucial to the private cloud set up.

Eagleton believes that from an enterprise perspective, private-cloud is coming out ahead due to the flexibility it offers; however, each organisation is ultimately different.

Hyperconverged Outpacing Other Data Centre Investment Categories

In keeping with this trend is how the technology is being utilised. Hyper-converged technology is a clear leader in where investment is being made locally. The technology takes IT stacks from multiple infrastructure components and combines it into a software-defined platform. Its core capabilities are scale, flexibility and speed.

Register your interest for HPE’s CXO Sessions here.

“What takes my breath away is the pace and rise of hyperconverged infrastructure. It is by far going to be the fastest-growing category to 2022”; Eagleton notes regarding its relatively meagre purchasing levels in 2017, to it set to account for almost 25% of all data centre infrastructure spending in ANZ by 2022.

“We are working with customers right now that have services which are all 100% software-defined via hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). It is easy to update features and capabilities via the software and offers a new level of flexibility.”

“Another area we are noting is that reduces up-front costs. There is less of a “crystal ball” approach towards storage, less forecasting. The great thing about hyperconverged is that you can start small.”

Speed, flexibility and scalability are all crucial components required to drive the digital enterprise. Eagleton believes this is why the software-defined approach is making so much momentum.

It is Still Horses for Courses

Although there is a clear definition in the market place around where IT executives are heading in terms of investment, Eagleton believes it is still crucial for CIOs to be prescriptive about the needs of their business, and consider what is right for them.

“HPE takes a portfolio approach to delivery, and I believe the portfolio model is critical to modern IT delivery”.

“When speaking with CIOs I always like to sit down and understand where they are on their journey to software-defined, their key business challenges and what their priorities are.”

With so much development in the infrastructure and data centre space, the need for consultation is critical to ensuring the right outcomes. Applications and businesses are unique, which is why their technology fabric should be.

“Everything we do is done through a very tight consultation, and we need to spend the time to get to know your business to get the outcome the customer wants.”

Register your interest for HPE’s CXO Sessions here.