First Technology and HPE hosted a webinar yesterday to raise awareness around the latest technologies and solutions their partnership will bring to the local market - intelligent, self-managing storage, composable infrastructure and consumption-based IT services.
The Accelerating Success in a Digital Era webinar, run in partnership with ITWeb, was attended by over 80 cloud, edge computing and storage decision-makers from cross-sector organisations going through digital transformation.
“Transformation can be intimidating for customers, and we want to support them through this time,” said Eugene Maritz, First Technology’s service director. “That’s why we’re working together with HPE to assist businesses with their hybrid cloud decisions for improved efficiency.”
Maritz also took the time to reassure First Technology clients of continued support amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “First Technology in partnership with HPE can enable any size business to optimise its current IT environments, particularly considering the tough economic times we are experiencing,” he adds.
Technology and the human experience
Writer and podcaster Ryan Hogarth presented the keynote address on the effect that digital transformation has had on business and industry.
“The message until recently has always been ‘we have to prepare for change’, and now we find ourselves in a time of hyper transformation,” he said. “All our traditional processes have been wiped out.”
Hogarth said business should consider the transformation brought about by coronavirus as an opportunity for a new approach for the future. “All the things we’d thought of trying before, like remote working, have been thrust on us. Being nervous about transformation or being afraid of the costs involved around it is no longer an option.”
Hogarth went on to highlight some of the technologies he believes will be ‘thrust upon us’ as a result of this hyper transformation, including AI/machine learning, voice computing and ‘everything remote’.
Composable infrastructure
HPE’s Sarel Naudé presented the multinational’s intelligent data platform, an AI-driven storage solution developed with hybrid cloud environments in mind.
Being built for cloud, the platform supports easy workload and data mobility, enabling businesses to run any workload, anywhere, he said. “It is provided as-a-service so customers can become their own cloud provider, allowing them to achieve the agility their business requires.”
HPE GreenLake is a hybrid cloud consumption-based offering, which eliminates the problem of buying excess computing, storage or networking capacity for on-premises solutions.
“There’s never been so much pressure on organisations to embrace change and enable innovation in IT, ” said Francois Aucamp, HPE South Africa’s GreenLake lead.
“GreenLake aligns business and IT expenses,” he added, referring to GreenLake Central, a self-service dashboard that shows users where their cloud costs are coming from and the cost per workload, whether the workload is on premises or in the public cloud.
Solutions architect Stephan Steyntalked the audience through ‘composable infrastructure with HPE Synergy’.
Composable infrastructure is software-defined, enabling the management of storage, infrastructure, networking and computing resources as software. IT can compose fluid pools of physical and virtual compute and storage resources into any configuration for any workload, according to HPE.
“IT should be helping you understand your data, to drive more business by doing things like changing product offerings to suit customer needs. Composable infrastructure automates daily operations, allowing organisations to deploy applications at ‘cloud-like’ speed and scale,” said Steyn.
Buy now, pay in 2021
During the webinar HPE also announced a relief plan aimed at helping partners during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“To ensure business continuity, our essential service customers can acquire new technology and only pay 1% of the contract value for eight months, deferring the rest of the costs until 2021.”
Read further details about the relief plan here.
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