Antonio Neri: HPE Set To Deliver Breakthrough Kubernetes Platform

The new container platform “will be the first of its kind built on Kubernetes and unique IP (intellectual property) from BlueData and MapR,” said Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri in an address at the company’s annual securities analyst meeting.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is set to deliver a breakthrough artificial intelligence based Kubernetes hybrid cloud container platform that will provide a seamless cloud experience for both on premise and off premise big data applications, according to HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

Leveraging the artificial intelligence, machine learning and container technology offerings from its acquisitions of MapR and BlueData, HPE will soon bring to market a container-based platform that will modernize existing on premise big data applications and “unify” them with the public cloud, said Neri in an address on Wednesday at HPE’s annual securities analyst meeting in New York..

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The HPE new container platform “will be the first of its kind built on Kubernetes and unique IP (intellectual property) from BlueData and MapR,” said Neri.

“No matter what hybrid cloud stack our customers choose we want to differentiate their experience with our secure, automated and intelligent foundation,” said Neri.

At the heart of new container platform is HPE’s breakthrough composable Synergy infrastructure with HPE OneView composable cloud software, said Neri.

HPE’s Kubernetes strategy is centered squarely on providing customers with an intelligent data container platform, said Worth Davis, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Computex Technology Solutions, a Houston-based HPE partner.

“HPE is innovating beyond the base hardware to bring customers and the channel an intelligent data platform,” said Davis. “All the acquisitions and announcements HPE has made are all about going deeper and optimizing its software defined platforms with artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

HPE’s Kubernetes container platform breakthrough comes even as rival Dell Technologies prepares is launching its own Kubernetes offensive.

Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell recently told CRN that he expects VMware to become the Kubernetes king as the company expects to “very, very soon” launch a new, re-architected vSphere deeply integrated with Kubernetes.

“We’re putting Kubernetes right into vSphere. We showed that on stage at VMWorld and gave demos of it -- that’s coming very, very soon to the 600,000 vSphere customers that we have around the world,” said Dell. “It’s incredibly powerful to be able to manage virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters all from the same console and framework that all these customers are already use too.”

Computex Technology Solutions’ Davis, for his part, sees a major battle in the container technology market developing between HPE and Dell that will have its biggest impact in the high performance compute market.

“This kind of technology is targeted at HPC and the supercomputer opportunities,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what the impact is on the midmarket and the enterprise.”