As a solutions marketing summer intern on the HPE Aruba Networking team, it’s my pleasure to provide a newcomer’s perspective on HPE Discover 2023 and this summer’s HPE Aruba Networking Atmosphere World Tour events. It’s truly been a great learning experience and I’m excited to share my key takeaways.
First off, this year was the largest Discover yet, with over 10,000 attendees! Discover 2023 expanded on the connected story that HPE has been building for years: helping enterprises harness the power of their data by enabling ways to collect, transfer, store, secure, and now—with the power of Large Language Models—analyze it to extract valuable insights and create measurable business impacts.
This year’s most anticipated announcement revealed HPE GreenLake for Large Language Models. Large Language Models (LLMs) are AI models that use nodes to make connections in a pattern mimicking human brain activity, enabling them to generate content, such as photos or text, when fed data. The popularity of ChatGPT, an open-source application built upon an LLM, has brought the technology to the forefront of innovation, with a recent focus on its enterprise applications. HPE’s newest offering weaves this trending, industry shaping technology into the narrative by offering it (in quintessential HPE fashion) as-a-service, empowering all businesses to unlock the power of their data.
In addition to HPE GreenLake for LLMs, HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition was also announced. This offering expands upon HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise, allowing businesses to build their own hybrid cloud and VM management solutions to address cost, security, and data control challenges with the same streamlined view.
Several acquisitions were also announced, such as OpsRamp—a vendor-neutral, AI-powered management system for hybrid cloud resources available on the GreenLake platform or as a separate SaaS offering. On the HPE Aruba Networking side, two new portfolio expansions were announced both at Discover and Atmosphere: Axis Security and Athonet.
- Axis Security is essential to helping customers manage their network security as employees work from anywhere
- Axis Security will also enable smoother network management with security and networking solutions being offered together in a single solution
- Athonet adds private 5G to the mix, offering increased network flexibility while maintaining the security that comes with private management
Finally, new and expanded partnerships were highlighted. I was most interested in Aleph Alpha, a German AI start-up that has built the large language model, named Luminous, that will become the basis for HPE GreenLake for LLMs. HPE’s continued partnerships with Amazon Web Services, VMware, and Equinix will continue to help provide more sustainable solutions for businesses to advance their digital transformations.
To demonstrate how HPE solutions add value from a networking perspective, Kerell Hurt, Global Head of Strategy, Engagement & Partnerships at IHG Hotels & Resorts, took to the stage during CEO Antonio Neri’s keynote. He explains how HPE Aruba Networking supplies IHG with reliable connectivity to support their mission to create great customer experiences. IHG’s network enables them to implement intelligent hospitality solutions like their mobile app that features loyalty rewards, easier booking, and location-based Wi-Fi autoconnection.
HPE’s CTO keynote by Fidelma Russo also featured several customer testimonials. Keven McCammon, Director and Head of Digital Infrastructure Services at Henkel and speaker at Atmosphere ’23 Las Vegas, expanded on Henkel’s use of HPE Aruba Networking Central on the GreenLake platform. HPE Aruba Networking Central, our microservices based and AI-powered management solution, allows his team to see their entire networking infrastructure from a “single pane of glass,” leading to faster troubleshooting and more time for innovation. With HPE Aruba Networking Central, Keven’s team went from diagnosing a network problem in 4 to 6 hours to just 30 minutes. Michael Hawn, Director of IT & Automation at Echostar, and an OpsRamp customer, explained how HPE’s acquisition of OpsRamp helped his team gain more from the service. On the GreenLake platform, OpsRamp is “more stable, more available, and more capable,” according to Hawn. For example, HPE’s global services can help Hawn and his team even during the middle of the night!
Beyond illuminating customer examples, one of my main takeaways from the CTO Keynote was how easy it is to access a complete portfolio of services through a single, unified platform. From HPE Aruba Networking Central to the Sustainability Dashboard, these powerful tools to manage and process enterprise data are only a button-click away on the HPE GreenLake platform. View just how easy access is in the timestamped keynote demonstrations here:
- HPE Aruba Networking Central (18:57-22:48)
- Private Cloud Business Edition (22:48 -27:55)
- OpsRamp (40:38-49:45)
- Sustainability Dashboard (57:56-1:03:00)
There could not be a more thrilling time to be a part of HPE. I’m thrilled to be in the middle of the action as the company takes steps to further advance the way people live and work. The innovations announced at Discover and Atmosphere paint a bright future for the company, and I am particularly interested to see how the new acquisitions round out the HPE Aruba Networking portfolio. Axis Security seems like the missing puzzle piece that bridges networking and security and I believe it will become an important driver in creating new ways for customers to manage access for busy users as they work from anywhere. I can’t wait to see how HPE continues to lead the digital transformation of businesses throughout the rest of the summer and year.
If you’re interested in learning more about HPE Aruba Networking and taking part in the excitement yourself, you can register for an ATM Local or Atmosphere Meetup event! Hosted worldwide through the end of the summer, the regional Atmosphere events are an amazing opportunity to network with peers and engage directly with product experts and developers at breakout sessions, live events, and exhibitions. I’m looking forward to discovering what’s next together—see you there!
Additional Resources:
Connectivity, security, automation: HPE Aruba Networking optimized for hybrid cloud - YouTube
Data center investments simplify IT and cloud modernization | Aruba Blogs (arubanetworks.com)
HPE Brings AI-as-a-Service to the Enterprise with GreenLake for LLMs (forbes.com)
