HP Details Cloud Strategy, Opens Public Cloud Beta in May

It may be late to the public cloud computing party, but HP definitely made a grand entrance today by taking the wraps off of its HP Converged Cloud initiative, which includes a host of new and updated cloud offerings. HP's move into the cloud is yet more evidence that traditional IT vendors -- such as Dell, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle -- are taking the threat from public cloud services from the likes of Amazon seriously. All hope to become one-stop solutions for their enterprise customers by offering the full gamut of cloud options, from hybrid and private cloud to hosting and public cloud services.

When it comes to the public cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) casts a very long shadow. In an effort to provide an alternative to AWS, a variety of vendors -- led by Rackspace and NASA -- developed the OpenStack project, which seeks to provide an open-source platform for other vendors and companies to use to develop public cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services. HP plans to leverage OpenStack as the foundation for its new HP Public IaaS offering, which HP says will be available for testing in open beta form on May 10th.

HP also announced two other services that will hit beta at the same time as HP Public IaaS: a block storage service that includes data migration between compute instances; and a relational database cloud offering centered around MySQL. (Read Joe Panettieri's take on the HP MySQL cloud news over at Talkin' Cloud.) Other components of HP's cloud push include the HP Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN), HP Cloud Block Storage, and the HP Cloud identity service.

In a statement announcing the news, Bill Veghte, chief strategy officer and executive vice president of software at HP, touted the ability of HP Converged Cloud to manage multiple types of cloud services. "The convergence of cloud computing and mobile connectivity is changing the way infrastructures are built, applications are developed and information is delivered," Veghte said. "HP Converged Cloud enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements."

Does HP's cloud push make you more likely to move IT resources into the cloud? Share your thoughts by adding a comment to this blog post or contributing to the discussion on Twitter.