GreenLake Opens the Door to IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS)
Enterprises are under increased pressure to adapt their business models to meet new market needs and improve operational efficiency. However, their existing infrastructure is often a combination of legacy systems in an in-house data center and cloud-based platforms.
Managing such a complex infrastructure increases an IT department’s workload, which is particularly challenging when IT is already facing resource constraints. As a result, many organizations are moving towards a consumption-based approach to using IT resources, meaning they only pay for the resources they use.
Consumption-based IT has become highly popular in recent years, largely due to technological advancements and changes in business requirements. GreenLake offers IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) to customers that gives them the advantages of both in-house and cloud-based IT. In-house teams are most useful for manual efforts, while cloud platforms are best for automated workflows.
Consumption-Based IT Begins with ITaaS
Consumption-based IT involves acquiring IT resources as needed, on a pay-as-you-go basis. It changes IT infrastructure from on-premises hardware and software into ITaaS. The rise in ITaaS is driven by the nearly universal use of cloud platforms, which requires organizations to establish a financial relation¬ship with cloud service providers. In the case of enterprises, multiple providers are often needed to obtain all the services they require.
The biggest benefit of ITaaS over traditional methods of using IT resources is that it shifts the cost from capital expenditures (CAPEX) to operational expenditures (OPEX). ITaaS avoids the upfront expense of buying and maintaining IT infrastructure throughout its lifecycle. Obtaining IT resources then becomes a relatively simple matter of deciding which services your organization needs and making payments at regular intervals for the services consumed during that period.
ITaaS offers great flexibility and capability, helping organizations create business value from their data. This change is often known as “digital transformation” (DX), which is becoming essential for remaining competitive in today’s business environment. ITaaS allows organizations to match business requirements for IT resources with the timely delivery of those resources.
Challenges of Running Applications Outside the Cloud
Many enterprises already have as many applications on the cloud as is practical, whether those applications are native to the cloud or have been migrated from on-premises infrastructure. However, applications that are critical to a line of business often run outside the cloud, which creates a few challenges, including:
- Control
- Compliance
- Data gravity
- Performance
- Security
- Sovereignty
- System interdependencies
An infrastructure that includes both cloud platforms and on-premises data centers create a complex, dual-sided operating environment that provides competition for both people and money. It also keeps applications and services within their existing silos, requiring specialized tools and technologies to service them. This dual environment encourages business units to focus only their specific requirements and solutions, making it difficult for them to see larger issues like data visibility, governance, and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, personnel with cloud expertise are currently in high demand, so obtaining adequate staffing in this area is often a challenge.
Leveraging IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS)
An organization must take a high-level view of its resource usage to make the best use of ITaaS. Achieving this goal also requires the solution to deliver a consistent cloud-like experience, regardless of the user’s role within the organization. This experience includes unified operations across multiple locations, whether it’s on-premises, a private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud. Consumption-based IT offers users the freedom to choose their own platforms, tools, workloads, and partners. Furthermore, it provides the entire enterprise with a comprehensive collection of insights into the organization’s data.
HPE GreenLake managed by Comport provides organizations with multiple opportunities for growth and innovation through consumption-based IT. Our open, flexible approach to working with existing infrastructures has a lower requirement for financial and human resources than owning and operating infrastructure entirely on your own. GreenLake is also preferable to purchase and leasing models, both of which require over-provisioning of resources to accommodate peak demand.
Why HPE GreenLake?
HPE GreenLake is an agnostic, multi-cloud, multi-stack managed service that uses consumption-based IT to provide a cloud-like experience across multiple operating environments.
Its agnostic nature means that GreenLake has no specific requirement for any particular cloud platform or service provider. GreenLake is designed from the ground up to interact with many platforms and providers, even being able to act as a managed service provider for major platforms like AWS and Azure. Multi-stack capability means that GreenLake works with cloud-based frameworks such as OpenShift, OpenStack and VMware Cloud Foundation. All in all, HPE GreenLake works to provide you and your business with the options and features you need to make your own choices.
Get started on your path to ITaaS by test driving HPE GreenLake.
Author:Bill Flatley, Field CTO for Healthcare
Bill is responsible for technical strategies and recommendations for Comport’s Healthcare clients. His extensive experience includes four healthcare systems in leadership roles supporting Clinical Applications, Digital Health, and Office of the CIO as the primary liaison between IT and the business.
