Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Microsoft have opened a joint innovation center in Seattle expanding their collaboration to speed up hybrid cloud adoption.
The centre, which is located in Seattle, allows customers to connect with HPE and Microsoft experts to test HPE / Azure Stack solutions.
The innovation centers will be jointly staffed by HPE and Microsoft technical experts, who will help customers enjoy seamless hybrid cloud experience while leveraging Azure Stack across HPE infrastructure, software, and services.
In the innovation centers, the customers will be able to test drive Azure Stack use cases and workloads as proof of concept in Azure Stack environment, in preparation for deployment in a production environment.
The companies are exploring options to open a second innovation centre in Europe.
HPE said: “It’s been a busy year on the hybrid cloud front. HPE and Microsoft have delivered numerous solutions that organisations can buy today and utilise with existing applications and infrastructure.
“Through our collaboration, we are providing a roadmap that will enable customers to extend the benefits of hybrid cloud computing with Azure Stack and HPE solutions, now and in the future.”
Last year, the companies announced a collaboration to accelerate hybrid cloud computing through Microsoft Azure, HPE infrastructure and services and new programme offerings.
Under the partnership, Azure was a preferred public cloud partner for HPE customers, while HPE was appointed as a preferred partner in providing infrastructure and services for Microsoft’s hybrid cloud offerings.
The companies also shared plans to collaborate across engineering and services to integrate innovative compute platforms aimed at assisting customers to optimize their IT environment.
HPE said: “Our two companies have a shared, common vision for hybrid cloud computing, and in the past year have made progress towards blending the power of Azure with HPE’s leading infrastructure, support and services to make the cloud more accessible to enterprises around the globe.”
The two companies launched the HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft Cloud Platform System Standard, a hyper-converged system with hybrid cloud capabilities.
In September, HPE unveiled details of our upcoming HPE Azure Stack solution for the organisations to deliver Azure compatible infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) services from their on-premises data center.
Besides, the two technology giants launched new HPE Consulting for Azure Hybrid Cloud services for implement of Azure Stack.
In addition, Microsoft and HPE worked together to develop solutions to address the complexity of managing hybrid cloud environments.
They integrated Microsoft Operations Management Suite with HPE OneView to help customers gain visibility and control across their hybrid cloud.
