HPE Container Platform: Empowering you with choice in deployment models

Deploy containerized apps on bare metal or VMs and in any location—from edge to core to cloud

Customer trends suggest that enterprises are split down the middle in their choice of where to run containers – roughly half are choosing on-premises deployments and the other half are selecting public cloud. For those selecting on-premises deployments, they also seem to be divided – half are running containers on bare-metal servers and half on virtual machines.

I share these trends because I think it demonstrates that customers want a choice of deployment models—whether it’s to support a specific workload type, to accommodate staff skill, or for economic reasons. This is why HPE’s approach to containerization focuses on flexibility.

Today, I’m excited to announce that the new HPE Container Platform is generally available. It’s an enterprise-grade container platform designed to deploy both cloud-native applications and monolithic applications with persistent data storage, using pure open source Kubernetes. We recognize that our customers want the flexibility to run containerized applications on bare metal or VMs, in their data centers, on any public cloud, or at the edge. By accommodating different deployment models, our platform supports their hybrid cloud or multi-cloud strategies—while ensuring enterprise-class security and reliability.

But organizations also want to be more efficient and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for their applications. And they want optimal performance, especially for data-intensive applications like AI and analytics. That’s why we see increasing demand for bare-metal containers. By removing the hypervisor and hardware virtualization layer, our customers can eliminate unnecessary overhead, avoid lock-in, and reduce “vTax” licensing.

Virtualization and containerization will likely co-exist for some time. I’ve seen hardware virtualization mature and container adoption accelerate over the past several years. It may be an evolution rather than a revolution. Some vendors are merging these technologies, embedding Kubernetes with the hypervisor—rationalizing that it allows customers to preserve their virtualization investment, tools, and training. But isn’t it also a strategy for a vendor to stay relevant and maintain a grip on expensive license fees? And doesn’t a hypervisor-centric strategy limit choice while adding cost and complexity for customers?

I liken running containers on VMs to pulling a Ferrari behind a horse and buggy. That’s why I believe a new approach is needed: one that brings agility and speed to accelerate application development powered by Kubernetes, with enterprise-grade security and scalability; one that recognizes the need to transition from virtualization to containerization, to improve efficiency and reduce TCO. It’s time for a container-first approach.

The HPE Container Platform is a unified solution based on proven software innovations from HPE’s acquisitions of BlueData (providing the control plane for container management) and MapR (providing a unified data fabric for persistent container storage). It delivers the ability to deploy and manage multiple open source Kubernetes clusters at scale in a secure, multi-tenant environment. And it provides our customers with the freedom to deploy containerized applications on any infrastructure (whether VM or bare metal) and in any location (from edge to core to cloud).

We’re also backing up our software with new professional services to ensure faster time-to-value, as well as several new reference configurations for a wide range of use cases—including data-intensive application workloads such as AI, machine learning, deep learning, data analytics, edge computing, and IoT. The HPE Container Platform was designed to meet the unique requirements for an increasingly edge-centric, cloud-enabled and data-driven world.

The feedback from the market is clear: enterprises want flexibility and choice in deployment, to support their hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategies. We’re delivering that, with our container-first approach and the HPE Container Platform. I’m proud of our engineering team and thrilled to bring this ground-breaking new solution to market.

And we’re just getting started. HPE is committed to continued software innovation to help our customers drive greater business innovation, modernize app development, reduce costs, and accelerate digital transformation.

To learn more about the HPE Container Platform, go to www.hpe.com/info/container-platform.