OakLeaf Systems: HP Announces “Secret Sauce” to Accelerate Windows Azure Development

Saturday, December 03, 2011

HP Announces “Secret Sauce” to Accelerate Windows Azure Development

An HP Offers Services to Accelerate Application Development and Deployment on the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform press release of 11/30/2011 from its HP Discover 2011 - Vienna event begins:

HP Enterprise Services today announced new applications services designed to accelerate the building or migration of applications to the Microsoft Windows® Azure platform.

Traditional applications development and deployment approaches often take too long and cost too much. Cloud platform offerings, such as the industry-leading Windows Azure platform, can improve responsiveness to business needs while reducing costs.

With the new HP Cloud Applications Services for Windows Azure, applications developers can quickly design, build, test and deploy applications for the Windows Azure platform. As a result, enterprises can more quickly capitalize on new opportunities. The services also enable clients to accelerate adoption of the Windows Azure platform as part of their hybrid service delivery environments.

Additionally, clients can manage risk and optimize IT resources with a methodical approach to assessing, migrating and developing applications on the Windows Azure platform. With usage-based pricing for the platform, clients also can align IT costs with changes in demand and volumes. “As their needs shift, enterprises want to confidently and rapidly adopt cloud-based applications,” said Srini Koushik, vice president, Strategic Enterprise Services, Worldwide Applications and Business Services, HP. “HP helps clients speed time to market by transforming or developing new applications, then efficiently and cost-effectively deploying them onto the Windows Azure platform.”

HP has deep and diverse expertise in transforming legacy applications to modern platforms like Windows Azure. HP uses the HP Cloud Applications Guidebook and HP Cloud Advisory tool to analyze applications for cloud suitability based on business and technical characteristics. HP also developed and uses Windows Azure delivery and migration guides, plus proven techniques, to modernize and migrate applications.

HP Cloud Applications Services for Windows Azure is part of HP Hybrid Delivery, which helps clients build, manage and consume services using the right delivery model for them. Available worldwide, HP Cloud Applications Services for Windows Azure are delivered through a dedicated Windows Azure Center of Expertise that is supported in region by consulting services and seven global joint Microsoft and HP competency centers. [Link added.]

HP and Microsoft have delivered technical innovation together for more than 25 years. They offer joint solutions that help organizations around the world improve services through the use of innovative technologies. More information about the HP and Microsoft alliance is available at http://h10134.www1.hp.com/insights/alliances/microsoft/.

HP helps businesses and governments in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

The question is what are HP Cloud Applications Services for Windows Azure? The usual cadres of HP Enterprise Services (formerly EDS) consultants drawing boxes and lines on whiteboards at $300/hour each? HP’s Enterprise Service for Cloud Computing page (#230 of 266 categories) offers only the brief description outlined below in red:

Click image for full-size (1024 x 768) capture

Other HP Enterprise Cloud Services offer links to additional descriptive information:

With HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Compute, you receive a hosted cloud computing infrastructure-as-a-service that supports important business workloads through high levels of availability and responsiveness as well as an efficient, flexible consumption model.
HP Enterprise Cloud Services for Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a winning combination of the market's leading enterprise CRM application with our virtual private cloud solution.
HP Enterprise Cloud Services for SAP Applications provide you with flexibility, improved cost control and agility needed to meet dynamic requirements; we currently offer services supporting an SAP development environment for your ERP projects and services supporting SAP’s CRM application to improve your customers’ experience with your company.
HP Applications Transformation to Cloud services enables enterprises to determine cloud suitability for applications.

but not HP Cloud Applications Services for Windows Azure. Observe the lack of any reference to the promised HP implementation of the Windows Azure Platform Appliance (WAPA).

Note: Other writers have covered this topic but mistakenly named the offering “HP Cloud Applications Services for Microsoft Azure.” These articles include: