I: Welcome to Behind the Cloud,
I am your host Brent Haley and today we are actually at OpenStack Barcelona
and I have the privilege of being here with Xavier Poisson to talk about Cloud 28 and our program
so thank you for being here,
it is going to be a great show, we are just getting ready but really wanted to start off
and have you explain one, your position now,
it has changed a little bit from what you have done in the past with all the great things with clouds
so tell me a little bit about that.
R: Yeah, so my question will be really to try to shape
what we call indirect digital services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise with movement of cloud computing,
how we can develop more digital services to our global eco system of partners
these being service providers,
software vendors, system integrators and also VAR resellers
because they play a big role in the movement along with also all customers
who are beginning to become also provider of services
so bridging all these categories of partners at HP and put them in a digital services motion.
I: So that is actually a much bigger bucket than kind of what we pile it in with Cloud 28 right
so this is growing larger?
R: Yes so Cloud 28 plus was an effort that we are been driving during the past two years
with going live in December and to be honest it had a lot of success
because as of today we deliver more than 1100 cloud services built or consumed
through more than 300 partners across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
and it is developing a lot and the topic is that we have partners inside this community who are global
and so we had some questions from our partners
because we govern Cloud 28 plus with an advisory board,
it is not HPE driving that, it is a collective effort
and we have represented it in the net advisory board of all the kind of partners that we had
and some of them are global so they were asking to us okay, what can we do to expand?
So let us me take an example where in Iberia I would say but we have a partner in Portugal,
this partner is developing drop boxes of our education
and he has been doing that of course for universities here in EMEA
but he is opening markets now in South America, Latin America and he says okay,
so how we can collaborate across the ocean to make things happen together
because it is an opportunity for people in Latin America or in America
to use immediately something that we have developed
and also for these companies that will be our organisations
that will be in Latin America or America but also it is valid for APG also,
they will have a reach to a global network of 130 data centres here in Europe,
Mid-Eastern Africa working as a federation.
I: So it really brings the ability for us to expand and take someone
who is doing something vastly different, very cutting edge and drive that to the whole world?
R: Yes and it is really different from what is existing on the market
because first of all as I like to say it is not revenuing the centre, it is...
Cloud 28 Plus has been designed in order that every single member of the ecosystem
can make the money at the edge okay and it is peer to peer transaction,
it is not monetisation in the centre today and for customers, you know,
it opens to them if they log to Cloud 28 Plus portal.
First of all they will see a lot of information regarding Cloud, the various countries,
the topics around data privacy but also marketing, digital marketing and the solutions on Cloud
and they will be able to look after various capabilities,
how I can build my private cloud, how I can build a hybrid cloud,
how I can consume cloud services from public cloud with respect of diversity
and because we have services from every single country in EMEA.
I: So you mentioned public and private, so it is a hybrid so people can take care
and use both kinds of services, explain to me a little bit how that works for ...
R: If I have an enterprise I am looking to enter this world of cloud,
the first thing is I need to know what is available
and when we created Cloud 28 Plus some years ago
the first aim was to give the visibility to the customers of
what is available in this jungle on the market
so categorising all the cloud services,
putting them classified between regions, countries, verticals, kind of either I build my cloud
or I consume cloud services with certified entrusted partner
is the first step so they will enter Cloud 28 Plus,
they will be able to find, let us say they want to build a hybrid,
hybrid is part of built on premise for private cloud on consume of premise with public clouds
so I want to be advised so you have, you can search for advisor, consulting, consultancy
so you have consultancy companies inside the catalogue,
then you say okay I want for instance
to make that topic of me as a service in my country in Iberia
so immediately you will have use cases popping up that offer data recovery as a service,
what does it mean?
You need to have for instance a software vendor, you need to have a system integrator
and according to where you are it would propose to you immediately the right partners
so you can build that with your advisory private cloud and then you say okay
but I want also to consume cloud services
and then you will be able to find inside the catalogues some cloud services providers
who have accepted to be there
and who are proposing a pure consume cloud services infrastructure
but also SaaS (Software as a service) so one place to go everything ready
and you can make your big puzzle I would say,
assemble your puzzle around build consume
what you can get from the members of the community.
I: Is this helping our partners accelerate their build process, getting it out there and getting across,
you know, country lines?
R: Yes, definitely because first of all they can describe their services and which is very,
very important because we have a very rich taxonomy inside the way to the catalogue,
we call it the service centre, to make it happen so it has then to be connected on one side
with the customers but also with the software vendors,
the ISV's because it is very open I will come back on that later to developers and SaaS vendors
and also with the services providers.
I was just as an anecdote,
I was in GiTex which is a kind of big, big IT fair in the middle east
where we opened Injazat cloud with a member of Cloud28+
and immediately because they are part of Cloud28+ we are able to connect to Injazat
some value-added resellers in the region who are going to propose on the market
the public cloud services developed by Injazat in complement of their services of integration
to the private cloud so it is all benefit.
So it is the first advantage,
the second advantage is there is a big digital marketing engine included in Cloud28+
to really launch campaigns in order that you can easily follow the clicks of the people coming
in order that partners can really see for instance
if they publish an article about cloud computing on that scale for instance.
People will have a look at it,
we are ruling that because we have more than 15000 twitter followers on Cloud 28 Plus,
more than 3000 LinkedIn members following us so we launch complaints on this article,
people will come in, they will search and they will follow a certain journey inside the website
and then they will come to the offering of our partners so it is beneficial for them
because your customer is better informed and the partners is informed
that the customers are informed so they can...
I: So you are matching people up?
R: You match people up so this is the second app,
on the second last one is everything that we are doing now for developers on applications
because what we want to do is to create and I announced that
it was in May during our big community event that we had in Amsterdam
with more than 400 people by the way.
We are also an application centre, a map centre in know that if you are a developer, an LSV,
you can publish your code not only describe it but publish,
it will be stored in a container and then if you are a customer you can download and self-orchestrate it
so we work with…
I: So very open platforms?
R: Very open platform, we work with Docker, we work with Oracle so technology partners,
of course Intel is a big partner with us,
supporting us and we have many software companies
who are now really bringing a lot of value in this ecosystem.
I: Very interesting. Now one of the things that I have been watching with, you know,
on the edge and things, openness is great, security and compliance is another one right
so very important for people especially
when they are publishing our code, make sure we are not getting hacked, talk a little bit about that
because I know that that is one thing with country to country.
R: So first of all from inception we have engaged with organisations
who are certifying data centres in cloud so Euro cloud for instance
but we are starting to engage with ANSI,
with BSI and the more we are going to open to the other regions
I will say we engage with the organisations
who are certifying data centres on cloud services
so this is an important topic on the taxonomy inside description of a cloud service
is taking this into account.
Now you have also security as offering because when you want to build a cloud or if you want to…
for a reseller/value added reseller
or when you are a customer you want to build your cloud you need to use products for security
and of course we have companies who are publishing their products on offering around security,
Intel has been doing a lot of things in that as you know and we are working on that
and we have many software vendors also joining Cloud 28 Plus.
You know that the customers can better understand what it is about
and how they can use the different components.
I: Now this, you said it was a foundation, it is not truly just HPE,
I mean it is a council and a foundation.
R: Yeah, it is not a foundation, I would argue that it is a big community,
it is a community and we have an advisory conceal made of 15 members representatives
from service providers, technology partners, software vendors, universities
so what I am not saying is that we have a lot of traction with universities
because the world of cloud you have a lot of research being done
and the topic of the universities today
is to invest in research that really very quickly test it on the market
and engage with the industry in order to make products real
and in this sense, you know, we have already organisations like Uppsala universities in the Nordic, 
Hasso-Plattner Institute in Germany, Ines in Portugal, et cetera, et cetera while joining…
I am in touch, you know,
to enter relationship with American universities who are very interested also in joining this club
because it will give to them a reach from other perspective in other regions
not only American on where they can lead, how they can engage,
how they can test what they are doing in research.
I: Where is the next big expansion area that you see for this?
R: I do believe that APG is an area where we can start very quick
because in APG there is very big appetite for cloud native apps, for building hybrid
and they have also some concerns about data privacy between the different countries
so I do believe her it will start very quickly.
We already have some partners in Canada
so I believe we can place something very interesting in Canada, Latin America is eager to start,
one of our technology partners in Canada from Cloud28+ is starting to expand his business
on opening cloud capabilities in Colombia for instance so we are starting to engage
but it will not be a brutal move.
The lessons I took out of Cloud28+ is that you need to move smoothly, you need to listen,
you need to really understand what the market is asking for,
it may vary from one region to another and you need to customise and the good point is that
we are very flexible with Cloud28+ because it is not a cathedral,
you know, it is a community of players and we can adjust so I envision a situation
when we will have certainly the same service catalogue everywhere
but different community websites...
I: And different people supplying it.
R: And different supplying and also but putting idea and everybody together which is my goal,
what I like to do, absolutely yeah.
I: Is there anybody else really doing this
or are we taking the lead on this in bringing these people together?
R: I would not say that we take the lead or something as we are doing our job
which is a job of HPE that was HP before to make our business with partners
so here it is a new way to do business with partners,
to expand the capabilities given the new technologies that we have and we use all our partners
to take all the best things that they are creating everywhere to put them together,
well it is certainly a bit different from other initiative that we have seen is that
there is no monetisation in this centre meaning that we will not,
that Cloud28+ enabled on the next versions moving forward in other regions really
is a catalyst to expand the business of our partners
and this is what we privilege in this thing
so in this case we are not a market place so we are different, yes we are.
The second point is that we are putting together a lot of different players, service providers,
value added resellers, software vendors, system integrators.
For instance, we have CapGemini, Sogeti, we have Indra who has joined this company,
this organisation, system integrators but also now government entities at universities
and I bet that the next generation of members proposing cloud services are
not only using cloud services from Cloud28+,
will be the enterprise market on the public sector.
Why? Because when you are building for instance a smart city in Barcelona
you may be interested to promote it for the other cities in the world.
So the way we have built Cloud28+ is thinking of diversity,
it is thinking of global place while thinking of delivering things locally
with other people who are acting locally,
I believe that it is what is describing it the best and in this sense yes,
I believe that it should be unique on the market.
I: This is such a better explanation of everything that that has done ever than I have heard before
and it sounds like this is going to be growing and really expanding over the next year.
I see you are excited as you always are about doing this stuff.
That was a great explanation of Cloud 28
and all the things that are working in EMEA that were successful.
Of course, Xavier has done a fantastic job at it and how we are going to expand this worldwide
and I look forward to seeing how I partners accept this
and start actually using this service for more exploratory cloud services.
If you want more information on this please Cloud 28 website and also follow us on Twitter,
huge amount of following there and we will see you soon.
