Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. is getting into the hybrid cloud management game, launching a set of professional services today called HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud.

The offering is designed to help customers manage and optimize workloads hosted in both public and on-premises clouds, the company said.

HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud, which supports Amazon Web Services Inc., Microsoft Azure and the on-premises Azure Stack, provides automated cloud operations for performance optimization, cost controls and compliance and security. By automating these functions, enterprises can deliver the best resources for each workload and focus more on innovation.

The offering, delivered by HPE’s professional services business unit Pointnext, is based on technology the firm obtained through its acquisitions of Cloud Technology Partners Inc. and RedPixie Ltd. in the past year.

HPE said GreenLake Hybrid Cloud will be billed as an automated cloud operating model, providing a completely managed way for customers to operate in a hybrid IT environment. The offering is also available to non-HPE customers, with the company providing its Proliant servers for on-premises installations and billing customers on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The offering is timely. Enterprises are showing keen interest in the hybrid cloud model, according to research. HPE cites data from International Data Corp., which predicts that traditional data centers will account for just 50 percent of enterprise infrastructure spending by 2020, down from 62 percent in 2017.

Hybrid cloud models provide enterprises with a more scalable environment, so multiple, complex clouds are expected to become the norm for many industries. That’s why HPE is offering a way to reduce the complexity of managing these environments.

“Enterprises need a fast and simple way to optimize their public and on-premises clouds to enable applications and data under a common operating model,” Ana Pinczuk, senior vice president and general manager of HPE Pointnext, said in a statement.

Rival services to HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud include those from Turbonomic Inc., DivvyCloud, ParkMyCloud Inc. and App Direct Inc., while AWS has its own Trusted Advisor service. HPE’s offering is a pretty comprehensive alternative to those, however, because it covers multiple cloud types and rolls them into a single service.

“Operating a hybrid cloud comes with a lot of complexities in terms of compliance, cost and operational efficiencies,” Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE “There’s an opportunity for vendors like HPE who have a good understanding of the existing enterprise load, to use that understanding and provide both products and services which can really make a difference when it comes to managing next-generation applications.”

HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud provides three essential capabilities in that regard, including the ability to manage private and public cloud assets via a common interface. It also provides cost controls so enterprises can stay within their budgets, and continuous compliance controls.

“HPE’s GreenLake Hybrid cloud platform is a real moonshot as it is the Holy Grail for enterprises looking for multicloud solutions,” said Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategies. “Conceptually, customers can work in this model and move back and forth between their private cloud and numerous public cloud vendors. Like many moonshots, this will take HPE a lot of work.”

HPE hasn’t yet said when the new service will be made generally available.

Image: HPE