This profile examines HPE, a Texas-based company known not just for its storage solutions but also as a comprehensive provider across the IT landscape, ranging from storage and servers to the software that manages complex systems both on-premise and in the cloud.
Origins of HPE
Hewlett-Packard was founded in the 1930s by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, initially starting as an electrical engineering business in a garage. The company thrived during wartime procurement and expanded significantly, ultimately becoming the world’s largest PC supplier by the end of the 2000s, with interests spanning storage, networking, services, and consulting.
In 2015, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) emerged from the division of Hewlett-Packard, with HPE focusing on enterprise-grade servers, storage, networking, and related services. HPE’s foray into enterprise storage began with its acquisition of Transoft Networks in 1999, followed by purchases of notable companies like 3PAR in 2010 and Nimble in 2017, enhancing its storage capabilities.
Market Position and Ranking
As of 2023, HPE ranks 147th on the Fortune 500 list by revenue. According to IDC, it holds the third position among enterprise storage suppliers, possessing an 8.3% market share and generating $2.613 billion in revenue. However, this marks a period of decline, with growth figures indicating a drop of 17.6% from 2022 to 2023. Although HPE was once in second place, Huawei’s rise has positioned it with a 9.7% market share and over $3 billion in revenue, while Dell maintains the lead with a market share of approximately 25%.
Key Storage Products
HPE’s enterprise storage solutions are anchored by the Alletra MP family, while small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are catered to through the MSA Gen7 family. The core product, Alletra MP, launched in 2023, consists of three series: 5000, 6000, and 10000. This range features a scalable architecture that separates compute and storage, enabling organizations to expand resources as needed.
The Alletra 5000 offers hybrid storage capabilities, combining HDD and flash, with capacities reaching up to 294TB per node. The more advanced Alletra 10000 series provides all-NVMe flash storage that scales to multiple petabytes. Notably, the MP B10000 caters to high-performance applications, while the MP X10000 serves as fast object storage for data lakes.
For SMEs, the MSA Gen7 offers starting capacities of 23TB or 46TB, scaling to petabytes and supporting both Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage options, delivering up to 783,000 IOPS for random reads.
HPE’s Consumption Models
HPE’s GreenLake framework positions its entire portfolio as consumption-based services, enabling clients to pay for what they use. By mid-2024, the GreenLake user base had expanded to 34,000, featuring notable clients like Barclays Bank. This service model encompasses various storage solutions, including:
- GreenLake for File Storage, catering to AI and data-intensive workloads.
- GreenLake for Block Storage, configurable for both on-site private clouds and public cloud extensions.
- HPE Alletra Block Storage for AWS, a software-defined storage solution extending to AWS.
- Backup and machine learning services available via the AWS marketplace.
- GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise, supporting modular deployments for a range of applications.
On-Premise Solutions
HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition provides on-premise infrastructure with a cloud-like experience, facilitating self-service cloud setups and simplified management of VMs and resources. For regulatory environments disconnected from the internet, HPE Alletra Storage MP Disconnected ensures a cloud experience while adhering to compliance requirements.
Cloud Strategy
HPE fully integrates cloud strategies, promoting the development of both private and hybrid clouds using GreenLake as the delivery mechanism. This approach aligns with contemporary IT demands for flexibility and scalability.
Data Protection Offerings
Acquired in 2021, Zerto enhances HPE’s data protection capabilities through disaster recovery and cyber resilience solutions that support various environments, including multicloud setups. Recent expansions have included backup and migration support for open-source virtualization technologies and cybervault functionality on HPE storage hardware.
Containerization Strategy
HPE’s container strategy leverages its Alletra storage solutions within the GreenLake model, utilizing the HPE CSI Driver Architecture alongside Kubernetes and various orchestration platforms including VMware Tanzu and RedHat OpenShift.