HPE Partners Get Hybrid Cloud Solutions for SMBs

SPICEWORKS SPICEWORLD — HPE partners who work with small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), are on the receiving end of workload-tailored servers, software and deployment tools – also referred to as tailored hybrid-cloud solutions – the vendor announced Tuesday at SpiceWorks SpiceWorld in Austin, Texas. 

More specifically, HPE announced a complete “Office in a Box” SMB solution for on-premises, business-essential hybrid cloud services packaged by HPE and Microsoft; and HPE Rapid Setup Software. The new offers are designed to be simple, secure and affordable, featuring technology from HPE, Microsoft and Aruba, an HPE company.

HPE defines the SMB market as companies with up to 1,000 employees. 

Noting that SMBs are just as keen as enterprises to improve the customer experience and need to digitally transform their businesses, they look for channel partners to help them “go on that journey. “ 

“To meet their business outcomes, SMBs need hybrid IT, on-prem as well as off-prem,” Minal Santhosh, senior manager, SMB solutions at HPE, told us. 

Today, HPE is addressing the needs of SMBs with flexible, automated deployment tools; five hybrid-cloud solutions leveraging Micosoft Azure services; and purpose-built Proliant Gen 10 servers featuring HPE Silicon Root of Trust capabilities for enhanced security. 

Minal Santhosh

On the solution side, HPE is offering Small Office Deployment and five HPE hybrid IT solutions.

The new small-office-in-a-box deployment solution is designed for the small office, and branch or remote office. It offers an automated on-premises setup and connection of HPE ProLiant Gen 10 servers, Aruba network switches and wireless access points (WAPs). The HPE hybrid IT solutions include: file and backup, web hosting, virtualization, dev/test and database. 

On the product side, HPE is offering: ProLiant ML30 Gen 10, ProLiant DL20 Gen 10, and the Rapid Setup Software. 

The Small Office Deployment offer features configured, tested and validated offers, including ProLiant servers and attached storage, Aruba WAP and switches, and services from Aruba, Pointnext — as well as financial services. Partners can offer customers a flexible payment option. 

Next are the HPE hybrid IT solutions, which Santhosh says are critical for any business today. These offers are built in close collaboration with Microsoft, deploying Windows Server 2016 and hybrid deployments to Azure. 

The new HPE ProLiant ML30 and ProLiant DL20 Gen10 servers are a small-office tower with enterprise-class features, and compact and versatile rack server, respectively. 

The Rapid Setup Software is designed for partners, and is a guided tool for installation that takes them through a step-by-step process.

“This is all about creating efficiency for our partners,” said Santhosh. 

The process targets a partner’s entry-level or mid-level technicians, while leaving senior-level technicians free to work on other partner projects.

“Using the guide, a partner can save 50-70 percent of time because the typically five-hour process only takes about an hour and a half,” he added. 

The HPE Rapid Setup Software is available immediately. The Small Office Deployment offer and HPE Hybrid IT Solutions will roll out in November or December.