HP Opens Financing Floodgates With $2 Billion In Cloud Cash

According to HP, the company's financial services wing said will help customers shake the financial burden of cloud projects by offering up to $2 billion in financing for cloud-specific deployments. The initiative is spearheaded by HP Financial Services, Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech giant's leasing and asset management subsidiary.

HP said that while many customers and solution providers are realizing the opportunities surrounding cloud computing, many struggle to align their budgets and coordinate the RIO goals associated with making the move to the cloud.

"HP Financial Services' financing solutions offer business enterprise executives the opportunity to build a financial architecture to match their technology roadmaps to the cloud," the company said in a statement.

The move will help fund customers' transformation to an "Instant-On Enterprise," a businesses where value is designed, built and delivered via technology-enabled services. HP said Instant-On Enterprises realize that IT environments are shifting to the cloud, but will contain traditional, outsourced and cloud services for the time being.

"The evolutionary nature of this move and the ongoing transition it represents may require ongoing investments in technology expansion and upgrades," HP said. "A financial architecture designed to support a solution deployment over the long term can provide customers with the flexibility to expand or even contract their technology footprint with ease and in the most fiscally prudent way."

HP said the $2 billion will be made available for HP cloud offerings and can take the form of leases and other specialized financing offers; sale and lease-back of existing infrastructure, deferred payment plans; and other financing options.

The financing investment comes as HP attempts to position itself as the cloud computing leader in a marketplace that is becoming increasingly more crowded and competitive.

At HP Discover 2011 in Las Vegas this week, HP CEO Leo Apotheker reaffirmed HP's cloud plans as it seeks to dominate. According to Apotheker, HP is building a full cloud stack for IaaS and PaaS and will soon launch an Open Cloud Marketplace and public cloud offering.

And while HP is hammering home its cloud message, the company continues to position itself as the go-to company for hybrid cloud solutions, where customers move piecemeal into the cloud over time.

HP, however, faces stiff cloud competition from the likes of Dell, IBM and other major tech players clamoring for their slice of the cloud pie and have put several millions of dollars behind their respective cloud strategies.