HP has signed an agreement with Beijing UnionRead Information Technology Ltd., a content distribution network service provider and hybrid cloud operator, to build and operate community cloud hosting environments for enterprise customers in China.
UnionRead will be the first service provider in China to deploy HP Helion solutions based on OpenStack technology since HP introduced the HP Helion portfolio earlier this year. The agreement is a significant step that will enable HP to meet customers’ growing demand for cloud hosting services in one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in the world and demonstrates momentum for the HP Helion portfolio.
Community clouds
A community cloud hosting environment offers an infrastructure that is shared between multiple organizations with common interests, for example, vertical industries or geographies that have similar security, privacy, performance and compliance requirements. Community clouds based on HP Helion are expected to be available in China next year.
“Community clouds will become increasingly prevalent in China as communities of interest, such as an automotive supply chain or a city government, seek to gain efficiencies and speed by leveraging a common cloud infrastructure,” said Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer, HP. “Through our relationship with UnionRead, we will be able to offer customers a fully supported hybrid-cloud solution, leveraging OpenStack technology, to quickly and reliably build community clouds.”
Data centers UnionRead
UnionRead will establish a dedicated team to build, operate and support community clouds. The company also plans to deploy HP Helion as the technology foundation that extends across its data centers throughout China. UnionRead community clouds will offer the following technical capabilities:
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – compute, storage and networking using HP Helion OpenStack commercial distribution.
- Platform as a service (PaaS) – the HP Helion Development Platform based on Cloud Foundry, a leading open-source development project, enabling developers and systems integrators to build cloud-native applications using a flexible, open architecture.
- Software as a service (SaaS) – services from HP and HP partners spanning a wide range of business applications, such as big data analytics.
“Building and operating community clouds based on HP Helion further drives UnionRead’s innovation and development in virtual computing and network virtualization,” said Peng Yang, chairman, UnionRead. “We are looking forward to working with HP to develop comprehensive cloud solutions in China. UnionRead and HP will jointly serve customers in many industries like education, healthcare, transportation and finance.”
