HP said today that it will not join the hype surrounding cloud computing, instead going down a route of careful assessment and a focus on the needs of the customer.
It was a general theme of HP's Software Universe in Vienna, where its announcement of new Business Technology Optimisation (BTO) solutions was made conspicuous by the lack of any mention of cloud computing.
HP executives said that the company already had the capability in fulfilling the promise of the enterprise cloud, whether it be in infrastructure capability or the business processes you need to deliver the cloud model. They also said HP already had a suite of services that worked in the cloud.
Tom E. Hogan, senior vice president of HP Software, said that rather than jump onto the cloud computing bandwagon, HP had been very deliberate over the last nine months in assessing where the cloud could have a significant impact.
He said: "What we've concluded is just like many movements in technology, the cloud will not be a panacea [cure for all illnesses]. Ultimately we see a multi-channel strategy for service delivery."
"Given the work that we've done in the last nine months, I think you will see HP taking a much more visible position [over the cloud] in the industry in the coming months."
Vice president for HP software services EMEA Andy Isherwood said that the cloud' was a fashionable term, and that observers needed to decide for themselves what was real' and fashionable' about what companies were describing when it came to cloud computing.
He said: "I think what you need to do as a community is to dig and work out what is fashion, and what is real. Go dig on the IBM and Computer Associates announcements, as well as ours, and find out what's real."
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