Hewlett Packard Enterprise have introduced a new compute platform for small and mid-sized businesses, educational institutions and branch offices that is managed and updated through the cloud.
The HPE ProLiant Easy Connect Managed Hybrid solution is a subscription-based managed service that aims to take the headaches out of IT for small and medium-sized businesses by providing customers with an on-premise server that delivers security, performance and control with the flexibility of the cloud.
SMBs are facing challenges as they grow and need their infrastructure to keep pace. Many of these organizations want to take advantage of the cloud, but are finding the transition difficult and are becoming disenchanted with their cloud service providers.
According to AMI Partners, 18% of SMBs reported cancelling one or more of their cloud contracts in the last 12 months to install an on-premise solution, and only 47% of SMBs indicated being satisfied with their providers. With minimal or no IT staff at all, these small organizations need a solution that combines the benefits of the cloud with the security and control of on-site IT.
“Small businesses want to focus on growing their core businesses, not spending their limited resources on deploying and managing IT,” said McLeod Glass, vice president and general manager, SMB solutions and tower servers, HPE. “This new solution is part of a broad HPE initiative, inspired by the unique needs of small and mid-sized businesses, to deliver innovative solutions that are easy for our channel partners to sell and easy for our customers to use.”
We spoke to the UK team at Hewlett Packard Enterprise about how the solution was built around the specific needs of the SMB market segment.
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The HPE ProLiant Easy Connect Managed Hybrid solution is the first offering in HPE’s Easy Connect portfolio, solutions dedicated to making IT easy for small businesses to deploy and manage. The new managed hybrid solution features tightly integrated compute, storage, and networking, together with virtualization and cloud management software from Zynstra.
The solution is preconfigured to install in minutes so it can quickly begin handling business workloads both on-premise and in the cloud. Small organizations can choose which data and applications they want to keep on-site and which to put in the cloud. Pre-integrated options with cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, it is managed remotely. Virtualization and cloud management software, automated maintenance, patches and upgrades, eliminate the need for excess costly on-site IT staff.
In addition, the HPE ProLiant Easy Connect includes break/fix services and gives small businesses the opportunity to take advantage of a subscription model as an alternative to paying for up-front software licensing costs.
“Organizations of all sizes are transforming their IT to a hybrid mix of private and cloud technology,” said Nick East, co-founder and CEO of Zynstra. “Together with HPE, we’ve done the heavy lifting for SMBs and their IT partners. This small form factor solution delivers the right business value without compromise or complexity, and is integrated with and managed centrally from the cloud. It’s how IT should be.”
