HP CloudSystem

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HP CloudSystem is a cloud infrastructure from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that combines storage, servers, networking and software.

Contents

HP CloudSystem is now branded HP Helion CloudSystem and is an integral component of the HPE Helion portfolio.

History

HP CloudSystem was first launched in January 2011. [1] Many of its components are based on earlier HP products. HP CloudSystem is based on HP BladeSystem Matrix technology, which was originally launched in 2009. BladeSystem Matrix is a combination of HP Systems Insight Manager, HP BladeSystem c-Class blade chassis and HP StorageWorks EVA Fibre Channel Storage framework, along with Microsoft Active Directory and virtualization Hypervisors from Microsoft and VMware. HP Insight Orchestration provides the orchestration functionality. [2]

Previous versions of HP CloudSystem combined HP Matrix Operating Environment, which manages, monitors and provisions servers for physical and virtual resources and HP Cloud Service Automation Software, a set of system management tools used to provide and manage the lifecycle of IT services. BladeSystem Matrix supports HP ProLiant x64 blades running Microsoft Windows and Linux, and HP Integrity blades running HP-UX. [3]

HP CloudSystem is now branded HP Helion CloudSystem and is an integral component of the HP Helion portfolio.

Cloud migration challenges

The migration of traditional IT, in which IT directly controls IT purchasing, deployment, management, and use, to a cloud computing model holds a number of challenges. A paper titled "Cloud Migration: A Case Study of Migrating an Enterprise IT System to IaaS," by researchers at the Cloud Computing Co-laboratory, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, raises several socio-technical issues related to the migration of IT services to the cloud. The researchers state that in-house IT personnel are at risk of becoming dependent upon the cloud service vendor, of which the user organization has no control over. The researchers also note that the user organization could also require more resources to carry out migration to the cloud and overcome the issues that could crop up after migration, such as a lack of in-house knowledge of cloud operations.

The researchers also note that the user organization's customer representatives could take longer to resolve customer problems, as their questions may require input from the external cloud services provider. Furthermore, migrating to cloud computing could reduce job satisfaction among IT staffers, whose jobs change from a hands-on technical role to managing external service providers. User organizations must also learn to cope with a new way of managing IT as they are no longer in charge of software support contracts or hardware maintenance issues. [4]

Other cloud migration challenges that have been cited include security, vendor management and technical integration. Security experts have raised the issue that because public clouds are multi-tenant (see: Multitenancy), meaning that the cloud provider hosts data from many different user organizations, opening up security risks. Vulnerabilities or defects in one organization's applications could negatively affect other applications hosted by the same service provider. [5]

Under the vendor management issue, user organizations must also take responsibility of ensuring different cloud providers meet their Service-level agreements. User organizations must identify what is required to integrate the cloud service with their existing IT infrastructure. The user organization may need to create a virtual machine template that describes the infrastructure, application and the security that's required of the service provider. [5]

Dan Kusnetzky, cloud computing analyst at research firm the 451 group cites resistance to change as an inhibitor to cloud computing. He is quoted as saying: "Basically, IT people are charged with keeping the status quo, because the possibility for changes introduces the chances that things will stop working." HP's Cloud Discovery Workshop and HP Cloud Roadmap Services has been described as created to address these concerns. [6] The workshops aim to educate user organizations about the impact of cloud computing to company culture. The opportunities and risks of cloud computing are also discussed. [7] The roadmap service is offered as an addition to the discovery workshop. It aims to help organizations plan and adopt cloud computing. [8]

CloudSystem environments and characteristics

Cloud Service Automation Software

CloudSystem includes HP Cloud Service Automation Software, a set of system management tools used to provide and manage the lifecycle of IT services. That is done in an automated way. [9] Cloud Service Automation Software is based on technology from a company acquired by HP in 2007 called Opsware. The tools that are part of CSA manage the following cloud tasks: workflow, configuration, provisioning, management and monitoring. [10]

Lauren Nelson, an analyst with industry research company Forrester Research has been cited as describing CSA as offering tools to create a cloud that would be similar to Amazon Web Services or Rackspace Cloud from a collection of servers. [10]

CloudSystem Matrix

Industry analyst company Illuminata has described CloudSystem Matrix as a "coordinated system for setting up pools of modular resources and flexibly deploying IT services across those pools." [11] HP CloudSystem Matrix is a platform for private clouds. It has been described as helping to shorten the time it takes for user organizations to deliver complex applications and IT infrastructures. [12]

HP CloudSystem Matrix 7.0 cloud automation environment was launched in November 2011. It includes pre-integrated server, network, storage and software components. This version also includes cloud bursting capabilities and automated self-provisioning. [13]

Judith Hurwitz, a widely recognized industry analyst [14] described CloudSystem Matrix as a linchpin of HP's cloud strategy. [15] She has described CloudSystem Matrix as a unified computing system that combines virtual and physical server blades. A central console is used to manage resource pools, physical and virtual servers and network connectivity. Among the virtualization hypervisors supported are VMware, KVM and Microsoft Hyper-V, Hurwitz writes in her article.

The engine of CloudSystem Matrix is the Matrix Operating Environment, which manages, monitors and provisions servers for physical and virtual resources. Matrix OE also carries out network management. [9] It is an infrastructure lifecycle management software that enables users to provision and modify complex infrastructures according to dynamic business demands. CloudSystem Matrix includes HP Cloud Maps, a set of templates to assist user organizations to architect cloud computing infrastructures to deliver applications and services. [16] HP Cloud Maps templates are pre-configured to include workflow and deployment scripts for cloud services. [17] Cloud Maps have also been described as pre-configured templates for creating application stacks. These stacks could include workflows or third-party applications from Microsoft, SAP and Oracle to be delivered as cloud services. The templates can be loaded into CloudSystem to create a cloud services catalog. HP has been cited as describing Cloud Maps as reducing the time it takes to provision cloud services by 80%, and to reduce the time it takes for compliance management by up to 75%. [18] [19]

HP CloudStart

HP CloudStart enables user organizations to design, build and install a private cloud based on CloudSystem Matrix. CloudStart includes Cloud Service Automation and a virtual infrastructure provisioning product that features a self-service portal. It also provides resource metering and chargeback facilities for private clouds. IT services are also included with CloudStart, including an assessment of the user organization's existing IT infrastructure plus recommendations for how the organization could use cloud computing. The cloud configuration is set up by HP, which also moves the defined services to the cloud. Training is also provided to the user organization. HP has been cited as saying that it can create a private cloud for user organizations within 30 days of its initial engagement with the organization. [3] [20]

Cloud orchestration

Cloud computing disperses applications and services among multiple servers and, in some cases, multiple data centers. Cloud orchestration coordinates the different cloud elements to ensure systems and applications management, integration, support, billing, provisioning, service-level agreement management and contract management. Cloud orchestration is a part of CloudSystem and the feature is based on Opsware Workflow, a centralized console for provisioning and server and patch management. [21]

CloudSystem Enterprise

CloudSystem Enterprise provides a single environment for the creation and management of private clouds. Based on Cloud Service Automation, CloudSystem Enterprise manages private clouds running on standalone physical servers, and hybrid clouds running across private and public clouds. CloudSystem Enterprise includes a lifecycle management tool to manage the deployment and retirement of applications and infrastructure. [21]

HP CloudSystem Service Provider

CloudSystem Service Provider is a platform for service providers to deliver public and virtual hosted private cloud services. It is aimed at service providers building Private clouds or Public clouds for Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service, or software-as-a-service. [21] CloudSystem can be used by service providers to provide cloud services on carrier-level networks and IT infrastructures. It also allow service providers to automate and provision cloud services. [22] [23]

Cloud bursting

In November 2011, HP announced a cloud bursting feature for CloudSystem. This feature enables CloudSystem to use the capacity of external private and public clouds when demand increases. [10]

CloudSystem includes other software. This includes HP TippingPoint, which provides intrusion detection, network security and traffic management. CloudSystem is based on templates called CloudMaps that provide common enterprise application stacks. Compliance is provided by HP ArcSight. [10]

Third-party support

CloudSystem is supported by a partner program, which helps cloud computing services vendors to build Cloud Centers of Excellence. These have been described as demonstration clouds for HP CloudSystem and HP Converged Systems platforms. The centers can include products from HP Networking, HP TippingPoint and HP 3PAR storage. [24]

Certified HP partners are also able to offer HP workshops, such as the HP Cloud Discovery Workshops and other training support. The Cloud Discovery Workshop is designed to educate attendees about cloud computing and helps attendees establish how cloud computing fits into their organizations and discusses best practices. [25]

Related Research Articles

In telecommunication, provisioning involves the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide new services to its users. In National Security/Emergency Preparedness telecommunications services, "provisioning" equates to "initiation" and includes altering the state of an existing priority service or capability.

NetApp, Inc. is an American data infrastructure company that provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations (CloudOps) solutions to enterprise customers. The company is based in San Jose, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 from 2012 to 2021. Founded in 1992 with an initial public offering in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data services for management of applications and data both online and physically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opsware</span> Software company

Opsware, Inc. was a software company based in Sunnyvale, California, that offered products for server and network device provisioning, configuration, and management targeted toward enterprise customers. Opsware had offices in New York City, Redmond, Washington, Cary, North Carolina, and an engineering office in Cluj, Romania.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service model by means of which computing resources are supplied by a cloud services provider. The IaaS vendor provides the storage, network, servers, and virtualization. This service enables users to free themselves from maintaining an on-premises data center. The IaaS provider is hosting these resources in either the public cloud, the private cloud, or the hybrid cloud.

Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing platform and one or more applications, without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching the application(s), and to allow developers to create, develop, and package such software bundles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud computing</span> Form of shared internet-based computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and typically uses a pay-as-you-go model, which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for users.

Dynamic Infrastructure is an information technology concept related to the design of data centers, whereby the underlying hardware and software can respond dynamically and more efficiently to changing levels of demand. In other words, data center assets such as storage and processing power can be provisioned to meet surges in user's needs. The concept has also been referred to as Infrastructure 2.0 and Next Generation Data Center.

CloudShare is a cloud computing provider founded in 2007 in Israel. It is now headquartered in San Francisco, California.

HP Cloud Service Automation is cloud management software from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that is used by companies and government agencies to automate the management of cloud-based IT-as-a-service, from order, to provision, and retirement. HP Cloud Service Automation orchestrates the provisioning and deployment of complex IT services such as of databases, middleware, and packaged applications. The software speeds deployment of application-based services across hybrid cloud delivery platforms and traditional IT environments.

HP Business Service Automation was a collection of software products for data center automation from the HP Software Division of Hewlett-Packard Company. The products could help Information Technology departments create a common, enterprise-wide view of each business service; enable the automation of change and compliance across all devices that make up a business service; connect IT processes and coordinate teams via common workflows; and integrate with monitoring and ticketing tools to form a complete, integrated business service management solution. HP now provides many of these capabilities as part of HP Business Service Management software and solutions.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Networking is the Networking Products division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HPE Networking and its predecessor entities have developed and sold networking products since 1979. Currently, it offers networking and switching products for small and medium sized businesses through its wholly owned subsidiary Aruba Networks. Prior to 2015, the entity within HP which offered networking products was called HP Networking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Converged storage</span>

Converged storage is a storage architecture that combines storage and computing resources into a single entity. This can result in the development of platforms for server centric, storage centric or hybrid workloads where applications and data come together to improve application performance and delivery. The combination of storage and compute differs to the traditional IT model in which computation and storage take place in separate or siloed computer equipment. The traditional model requires discrete provisioning changes, such as upgrades and planned migrations, in the face of server load changes, which are increasingly dynamic with virtualization, where converged storage increases the supply of resources along with new VM demands in parallel.

HP ConvergedSystem is a portfolio of system-based products from Hewlett-Packard (HP) that integrates preconfigured IT components into systems for virtualization, cloud computing, big data, collaboration, converged management, and client virtualization. Composed of servers, storage, networking, and integrated software and services, the systems are designed to address the cost and complexity of data center operations and maintenance by pulling the IT components together into a single resource pool so they are easier to manage and faster to deploy. Where previously it would take three to six months from the time of order to get a system up and running, it now reportedly takes as few as 20 days with the HP ConvergedSystem.

openQRM is a free and open-source cloud-computing management platform for managing heterogeneous data centre infrastructures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP Cloud</span> Set of cloud computing services

HP Cloud was a set of cloud computing services available from Hewlett-Packard. It was the combination of the previous HP Converged Cloud business unit and HP Cloud Services, an OpenStack-based public cloud. It was marketed to enterprise organizations to combine public cloud services with internal IT resources to create hybrid clouds, or a mix of private and public cloud environments, from around 2011 to 2016.

Cloud management is the management of cloud computing products and services.

"X as a service" is a phrasal template for any business model in which a product use is offered as a subscription-based service rather than as an artifact owned and maintained by the customer. Originating from the software as a service concept that appeared in the 2010s with the advent of cloud computing, the template has expanded to numerous offerings in the field of information technology and beyond it. The term XaaS can mean "anything as a service".

Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the process of managing and provisioning computer data center resources through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. The IT infrastructure managed by this process comprises both physical equipment, such as bare-metal servers, as well as virtual machines, and associated configuration resources. The definitions may be in a version control system, rather than maintaining the code through manual processes. The code in the definition files may use either scripts or declarative definitions, but IaC more often employs declarative approaches.

Virtuozzo is a software company that develops virtualization and cloud management software for cloud computing providers, managed services providers and internet hosting service providers. The company's software enables service providers to offer Infrastructure as a service, Container-as-a-Service, Platform as a service, Kubernetes-as-a-Service, WordPress-as-a-Service and other solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oracle Cloud</span> Cloud computing service

Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows these services to be provisioned on demand over the Internet.

References

  1. ↑ Clark, Jack. “HP packages aim to entice enterprises into cloud,” January 25, 2011, ZDNet
  2. ↑ Venezia, Paul. “Exclusive Review: HP BladeSystem Matrix,” June 17, 2009, InfoWorld
  3. 1 2 Prickett Morgan, Timothy. “HP punts turnkey Matrix cloud,” August 30, 2010, SearchCloudComputing
  4. ↑ Khajeh-Hosseini, Ali., Greenwood, David.; Sommerville, Ian. “Cloud Migration: A Case Study of Migrating an Enterprise IT System to IaaS," Cloud Computing Co-laboratory, School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, UK
  5. 1 2 Freedman, Rick. “Cloud computing migration issues: What you need to know," TechRepublic, December 22, 2009
  6. ↑ Brooks, Carl. "HP launches cloud computing consulting services," SearchCloudComputing, June 23, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Kovar, Joseph. K., "HP offers cloud computing 101," CRN, June 23, 2009". Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  8. ↑ Gardner, Dana. "HP adds new consulting services to smooth the enterprise path to cloud adoption," ZDNet, June 24, 2009.
  9. 1 2 Clark. Jack, “HP automates hybrid clouds on CloudSystem,” November 30, 2011, ZDNet "HP automates hybrid clouds on CloudSystem | ZDNet UK". Archived from the original on 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
  10. 1 2 3 4 SearchCloudComputing, “HP CloudSystem: What exactly is it?"
  11. ↑ Illuminata Spotlight, “HP CloudSystem Matrix: Managing at a higher level"
  12. ↑ Preimesberger, Chris. "Red Hat reveals new cloud-related deals with HP, BMC Software," eWeek, May 5, 2011
  13. ↑ Volk, Torsten. EMA Impact Brief: "HP CloudSystem Matrix 7.0 to be available in Q1 2012," January 9, 2012
  14. ↑ Analyst Profile: Judith Hurwitz, IT-Director.com
  15. ↑ Hurwitz, Judith. "HP's Ambitious Cloud Computing Strategy: Can HP Emerge as a Power?," Judith Hurwitz blog, February 15, 2011
  16. ↑ "CIOL, January 25, 2012. "HP Cloud Map makes cloud deployment simple"". Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  17. ↑ Burke, Steven., McLaughlin, Kevin. "HP takes the wraps off cloud-focused channel program," CRN, March 29, 2011
  18. ↑ Cox, Mark. "HP announces new program for partners to win in the cloud," CRN, March 29, 2011.
  19. ↑ Info-Tech Research Group, "HP Canada analyst day--cloud, cloud, cloud," May 12, 2011. Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ Ricknas, Mikael. “HP's CloudStart said to speed private cloud deployment,” August 30, 2010, InfoWorld
  21. 1 2 3 Prickett Morgan, Timothy. “HP plugs CloudSystem into Amazon and other heavens,” June 7, 2011, The Register
  22. ↑ Burt, Jeffrey. "Cisco, HP expand cloud computing efforts," eWeek, December 5, 2011. [ permanent dead link ]
  23. ↑ Hoofer (5 December 2011). "Cisco, HP Expand Cloud Computing Efforts". CloudCow.
  24. ↑ Dutt, Robert. “HP launches CloudSystem Partner Program,” March 29, 2011, ChannelBuzz.ca
  25. ↑ "Kovar, Joseph. F. "HP offers Cloud Computing 101," June 23, 2009, CRN". Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
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