Hybrid cloud 'makes all the sense in the world'

LAS VEGAS--Companies will eventually move to hybrid cloud environments that straddles both on-premise and cloud-based IT environments. This is why Hewlett-Packard (HP) has pinned its cloud hopes on providing products addressing this particular market space, a company executive explains.

Steve Dietch, vice president of worldwide cloud at HP Enterprise group, told ZDNet in an interview Wednesday that the company came up with its vision for cloud computing, dubbed "converged cloud", in April last year and was the result of listening to what customers were asking for in their migration efforts.

These conversations helped the IT vendor recognize that most, if not all, customers will move to the hybrid cloud deployment model because it just "makes all the sense in the world", he shared, adding that this helped determine the company's cloud strategy.

Cloud computing was one of three main areas CEO Meg Whitman identified as key to the company's future success during the company's HP Discover conference here on Wednesday.

In order to run a typical mid- to large-sized company, it would take between 10 and thousands of applications, with each app possibly needing different sets of requirements in terms of performance, cost, availability, security and regulation, Dietch noted. This is not possible with the traditional data center model.

So for the IT department to deliver myriad services to the business units in a secure, risk-mitigated way, they would have to have access to a diverse set of services, and this is something HP aims to support, he stated.

Companies are also not likely to limit themselves to one mode of deployment, and will turn to private, public, or managed hybrid cloud for reasons ranging from agility, performance, elasticity, security or cost savings, he added.

Asked if HP's hybrid cloud message may cause customers to stick with their existing IT environments instead of moving toward a more cloud-ready one, Dietch explained that it talks about traditional IT because customers know that to move from on-premise to cloud deployments is going to take time. It is not because it wants people to continue working in such a manner, he added.

This was something picked up on by John Brand, vice president and principal analyst of the CIO group at Forrester Research. He noted in a separate report that it was ironic the company appears to be encouraging clients to stay with legacy technologies and it might tar HP as a "legacy" vendor in the process.

Dietch added that the company was focused on simplifying its messaging for cloud and to provide more clarity and customer insight. "All vendors like to sound extremely smart and this confuses people. So we want to simplify the message of cloud."

Jamie Yap of ZDNet Asia reported from HP Discover 2012 in Las Vegas, United States.