From Biotech To Beer: 5 Ways HPE Partners Can Be Midsize Enterprise Problem-Solvers

Attack The Stack

The modern IT stack is a complex beast that companies can handle from a handful of angles, but HPE Chief Creatologist Joe Batista sees two distinct "hemispheres" against which they execute their workloads.

On one side, there's storage, servers, operating systems and hypervisors, and IT leaders can take a few different approaches to that infrastructure – layer optimization, converged, hyperc-onverged and composable. Opposite that, on what Batista calls the softer side of IT, businesses have their processes, apps, technical talent and security.

However midsize enterprises choose to manage their on-premises, off-premises and hybrid workloads, Batista said he sees midmarket IT departments leveraging HPE solutions in several ways, from IoT to mobile and even as a business optimizer. Speaking Monday to 200-plus IT leaders at The Channel Company's Midsize Enterprise Summit in San Antonio, Batista singled out five use cases that HPE partners might find interesting.

Navigating A Football Stadium With IoT

Asset tracking solutions enable a number of different IoT use cases, Batista said, as they are able to determine which devices and inventory are the biggest bandwidth hogs.

If one access point is eating up bandwidth in great amounts, Batista said users of Aruba's tracking offering can reroute that device to another access point. The offering also includes the Clientmatch feature, which can monitor a radio frequency's neighborhood and then use algorithm software that helps a custosmer balance loads and optimize its access point footprint.

Perhaps most appealing to sports fans, however, are the cloud-based custom apps that include location-aware technology. The Meridian mobile app platform, for instance, allows San Francisco 49ers fans to virtually navigate the route from home to stadium parking lot and, ultimately, his or her purchased seat.

'Interrogate' Network Users With NAC Solutions

Security has become a top priority for many midmarket IT decision-makers, particularly in response to the growing threat of ransomware. Ontario-based Brant Community Healthcare System leveraged ClearPass Security, Batista said, because the policy-based tool identifies users as they enter the network by application and device.

Batista added that midmarket companies can enhance these offerings by pairing them with user and entity behavior analytics platforms, which use machine learning to better understand anomalies and the "actors" behind them. If an IoT-enabled fusion pump suddenly begins sending huge chunks of data to an open port on a health-care company's records system, the platform will track and analyze that event.

Keeping The Beer Flowing With All-Flash, Analytics

Boulevard Brewing Company is one of the largest craft breweries in the U.S., making reliability and consistency necessities in their brewing process.

So Boulevard set up access points through its virtual desktop around its brewery, enabling employees to monitor the brewing process remotely – even from a mobile device. The business needed more space and performance for the added virtual desktop infrastructure, and it needed to pinpoint when a production problem would arise before it happens.

Nimble, HPE's all-flash storage solution, made sense for Boulevard in this instance because it predicts how the storage array will function in various situations, Batista said.

Tap Into Economies Of Scale With Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

The IT market has undergone what Batista called architectural compression – the consolidation of single-function devices into one multifunction box – and that allows IT providers to help enterprises take advantage of economies of scale.

Hyper-converged allows midmarket companies to lower up-front costs, avoid refresh cycles and reduce energy consumption and operational expenses. By reducing total cost of ownership and replacing legacy IT infrastructure, enterprises can improve disaster recovery capabilities and, in turn, provide customers with better service, he said.

Batista cited Central One Federal Credit Union as an example. The bank found that a cryptolock had been attacked and needed to run a rapid backup recovery. With SimpliVity, he said Central One managed to complete its backup within 15 minutes.

Balance Diverse Requirements With Composable Infrastructure

Some enterprise companies maintain a level of complexity that warrant a more nuanced workload approach. HudsonAlpha Institute, a nonprofit biotech company based in Huntsville, Ala., hosts around 200 genomic researchers across 34 biotech companies on its campus.

Their research activities sometimes vary greatly from a technology standpoint, Batista said, with some placing great strain on CPUs, while others require significant RAM space. A composable infrastructure solution was able to meet their various technology needs.

"How can I dynamically and agilely re-allocate those workloads and align my resources? Composability. Fluid pools of resource, some software definition, open API to integrate additional technology [means] I can now create infrastructure on the fly," he said.

Batista also mentioned DVD rental company Redbox, which operates entirely through automated kiosks, as a company that benefited from composable because of its low-margin business model. Cutting costs and making sure "the edge" is up and available were key priorities, he said.