HPE Helion
HPE Helion is a portfolio of open-source software and integrated systems for enterprise cloud computing. It was announced by HPE Cloud in May 2014. HPE Helion grew from under US$300 million to over US$3 billion by 2016. HPE Helion is based on open-source technology, including OpenStack and Cloud Foundry.
HPE Helion OpenStack: product based on OpenStack cloud computing project launched in October 2014.
HPE Helion Stackato is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) based on Cloud Foundry, which HPE acquired in July 2015. Helion Stackato is available for OpenStack, AWS, VMWare and Azure.
HPE Helion CloudSystem, an integrated Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service offering combining HPE Helion OpenStack and HPE Helion Stackato with HPE Proliant server hardware based on a particular use-case, such as distributed compute or distributed object storage. CloudSystem 10 launched in September 2016.
HPE Helion CloudSystem is a robust product that offers a completely flexible cloud installation. Block storage: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or HPE StoreVirtual VSA storage system. Management hypervisor type: Red Hat KVM or vSphere ESXi.
Helion CloudSystem Enterprise automates the integration of servers, storage, networking, security, and monitoring capabilities throughout the infrastructure service delivery lifecycle of a virtualized data center. Through the addition of HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA), Enterprise offers additional
design tools and provider integration, and with the Marketplace Portal, users have secure access to these services.
Helion CloudSystem Foundation is based on the HP Helion OpenStack distribution of
OpenStack cloud software. It integrates hardware and software to deliver core Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provisioning and lifecycle management of compute, network and storage resources. Foundation is managed from its Operations Console and its CLIs. Cloud applications are developed, deployed and scaled using the OpenStack user portal and the OpenStack APIs and CLIs
HPE Helion Eucalyptus is an Amazon Web Services-compatible platform for building cloud environments, based in the open-source Eucalyptus software, which HPE launched in March 2015. It allows AWS applications to be moved on-premises with no modification to the workload, design patterns, or mindset.
HPE hasn't abandoned OpenStack, releases Helion OpenStack 5.0 (May 11, 2017)
HPE is no longer developing OpenStack, but it's still offering a new OpenStack distro and services.
In Boston this week at OpenStack Summit, HPE released HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0. This release Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) based cloud is built on the OpenStack Newton codebase and adheres tightly to application programming interface (API) standards and services. Since OpenStack's open APIs are an important part of why it's popular with so many companies, that's no small matter.
In particular, Helion OpenStack 5 is designed to make the private cloud the core to your company's already-in-place hybrid infrastructure. With this private cloud as the foundation of your hybrid plan, you can gain the agility and reliability you need for improved performance, economics, and time-to-market while making the most of your legal data centers, servers, and applications. In short, it's the best of the old and new IT worlds.
Helion OpenStack 5.0 features an update to OpenStack Newton. It's designed for greater scalability and resiliency, as well as to support a broader variety of workloads. In particular, this includes native container orchestration. HPE enables you to run self-service containers based on Docker, Kubernetes, and Mesos.
In addition, new bare metal multi-tenant networking allows multiple users to securely share an OpenStack region. This enables your sysadmins to create a mix of bare metal and virtualized compute nodes within those regions, which can communicate over tenant networks. On top of that, the new Helion includes integration with SUSE Ceph-based object storage.
SUSE acquires HPE's cloud assets (March 12, 2017)
SUSE has become HPE's out-sourced cloud developer and its main Linux provider.
HPE and SUSE, a top Linux distributor, have a complex relationship. First, HPE spun and merged its non-core software assets with Micro Focus. Micro Focus owns SUSE, a major Linux provider. Now, SUSE has finished acquiring cloud assets of HPE's OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Stackato, HPE's Cloud Foundry implementation.
HPE describes this deal as a "strategic partnership with SUSE". HPE "will OEM SUSE OpenStack Cloud and the SUSE Cloud Foundry based PaaS solution as the foundation of the continued delivery of Helion OpenStack and Helion Stackato solutions with HPE support and professional services. By partnering with SUSE, HPE will provide best-in-class OpenStack and Cloud Foundry based PaaS solutions that are simple to deploy into customer's multi-cloud environments."
In other words, SUSE will hire HPE's programmers and do the cloud development work, while HPE will sell, deploy, and support the services. This is not an exclusive partnership. SUSE is free to find other partners and customers.
What the heck is HPE up to with its cloud? (May 3, 2016)
HPE's cloud story remains complicated. While the company has left the public cloud behind, it will continue to offer its OpenStack-based Helion 3.0 as a private cloud.
In the meantime, HPE OpenStack 3.0 is based on OpenStack Liberty. Mark Interrante, HPE Helion's SVP of engineering, said it has a "strong focus on enabling greater flexibility in configuration and deployment. With HOS 3.0, we expand hypervisor support to include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) KVM support for compute nodes as well as adding the ability to run multiple hypervisors in the same cloud. HOS 3.0 also introduces Boot from SAN support to enable customers to leverage existing investment in blade environments, and expands bare metal support."
HOS 3.0 also includes security improvements to support Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It also now encrypts data communications between internal and external APIs.
Interrante added that "we have also focused heavily on fundamentals -- specifically, performance and scalability. We have doubled our out-of-the box scalability to 200 compute nodes per region and have achieved higher levels with the support of our professional services teams."
What's new in HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0?
HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0 is the culmination of all we've learned in our years of work on the OpenStack project and represents our continued commitment to customer success with OpenStack. HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0 features an update to OpenStack Newton, which was designed for greater scalability and resiliency, as well as to support a broader variety of workloads. Most notably, this include native container orchestration, allowing you to offer self-service containers based on Docker, Kubernetes, and Mesos. New bare metal multi-tenant networking allows multiple users to securely share an OpenStack region, create a mix of bare metal and virtualized compute nodes within those regions, and allow mixed workloads to communicate over tenant networks. New integration with SUSE object storage solutions allows you to build stable and massively scalable Ceph-based storage for unstructured data that can be managed and updated independently of your OpenStack implementation. All of this amounts to more options for workstyles and agility for your consumers and customers.
Consultation, implementation, support
In March, we announced HPE Pointnext, a newly redefined technology services organization that combines our world class consulting and support services. The new organization includes 25,000 experts across a broad domain of technologies, with the aggregated knowledge to deliver more than 11,000 successful digital transformation engagements per year. HPE Pointnext brings this expertise to our customers exploring and using OpenStack, focusing services on three key areas that represent the entire lifecycle of your cloud implementation. Our Advisory and Transformation Services are at the forefront, designing customers' transformation journey and building a roadmap tailored to their unique challenges, including designing HPE Helion OpenStack based solutions. Our Professional Services specialize in flawless and on-time implementation, on-budget execution, and creative configurations for HPE Helion OpenStack. And finally, our Operational Services will offer new ways to deliver IT by managing and optimizing on-premises and cloud workloads, resources, and capacity including world-class support for HPE Helion OpenStack.
Key Value-add features HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0 provides above the core OpenStack technology:
- HPE Linux for HPE Helion
- Helion Lifecycle Manager
- Operations Console (OpsConsole)
- StoreVirtual for VSA
- Installation UI (Day Zero)
- VMware Connector (EON)
What's New and Improved in HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0
- Newton based services
- SLES Compute
- Container Service (Magnum)
- StoreVirtual for VSA
- Ironic Cloud with Multi-Tenancy
HPE Helion OpenStack is OpenStack technology coupled with HPE Linux for HPE Helion
What's New and Improved in HPE Helion OpenStack 5.0
- Shipped with an optimized footprint
- ship only Debian packages that Helion OpenStack requires
- Monitor compute nodes and enforce access control policies using AppArmor profiles
- Protect access to API endpoints using TLS
- Improve security by randomizing default passwords
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