HP Calls out AWS as Outdated

October 17, 2013

In an interesting twist, tech veteran Hewlett Packard calls out competitor Amazon for being too old-fashioned. Gigaom reports, “Beware of Amazon’s ‘Legacy’ Cloud, Says HP’s Cloud Guru.” We’d like to start with a curious observation—the proclamation contains nary a word about the advantages HP Autonomy offers over Amazon’s CloudSearch, still in beta. We’d think they would want to emphasize that advantage.

The focus of this PR push, though, is the rise of OpenStack, the growing open-source alternative to AWS. HP has contributed much to this project, apparently banking on the sale of related support and services. Writer Barb Darrow informs us:

“HP is hoping that the open-source fervor that propelled Linux to the top of the heap in enterprise and mobile operating systems will similarly motivate enterprise customers to take the OpenStack cloud plunge — with full HP services and support attached, of course.

“Given the sheer number of contributors to OpenStack — HP claims the fourth most contributions to the latest Havana release — it’s clear that the technology has piqued interest among developers and their employers. But since it launched four years ago, it’s still new in the game and businesses weighing a move into cloud need to know that moving legacy stuff to any cloud isn’t a day at the beach. HP, he said, will help assess those difficulties up front and, if needed, help with the move.”

Of course they will; that’s rather the point, isn’t it? Darrow notes that the popularity of OpenStack is fed by the shift toward the hybrid cloud. In this model, businesses can keep their most sensitive data on “private clouds” set up within a company’s own firewall. They can then share selected information in the public cloud for collaboration. The shift from one to the other, however, isn’t always as smooth as desired. This is where HP hopes to fill a niche it is helping to build.

Darrow refuses to dismiss the prospects of AWS. The platform has performed well since its launch eight years ago, rolling out new services at an impressive clip. Amazon must know potential clients are eyeing the hybrid cloud model. Should we expect a hybrid option from AWS soon?

Cynthia Murrell, October 17, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Cloud computing, News, Web Services

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.