HPE Introduces Small Office Solutions, Entry-Level Servers To Help Partners Engage SMBs

HPE on Tuesday introduced a set of bundled solutions and products, including two new Gen 10 servers, to ease the work of partners implementing IT systems for small businesses and supporting them with Microsoft's hybrid cloud capabilities.

With the slate of new solutions, HPE is enabling partners to deliver what small businesses care about most: business outcomes, Minal Santhosh, senior manager for SMB solutions at HPE, told CRN.

The hardware giant is offering an "office in a box" package of ProLiant servers, Aruba networking gear, and new software for rapidly standing up that small business infrastructure.

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"We are delivering fully validated and configured solutions, with best practices stitched throughout, and enabling our partners to deliver business outcomes," Santhosh said.

"The glue is a new rapid-deployment capability," he said.

The installation software initiates a guided process for deploying an operating system and hypervisor, cutting up to 70 percent of the time off that process.

Those systems can connect to cloud for Microsoft Office 365 or Azure for backup, as HPE advances its partnership with Microsoft.

The bundle also comes with validated solution guides to jump start SMB engagements, Santhosh said.

"One of the challenges partners report is they know the use cases but don’t know which exact components they should use for best cost and best performance for those use cases," Santhosh told CRN.

HPE is simultaneously bringing to market two entry-level ProLiant servers that offer enterprise-grade performance and features.

The ML30, a covered platform, and the DL20 rack platform, incorporate its Gen 10 advanced technologies like persistent memory, enhanced security through a custom-designed ASIC, "silicon root of trust" technology linking to Integrated Lights Out firmware, and Intelligent System Tuning allowing adjustments in processor performance.

The new hardware is intended for small offices or remote branch offices with use cases ranging from storage and backup to running a few virtual machines.

Through its partnership with Microsoft, HPE is also delivering hybrid cloud solutions tailored for five use cases: business continuity, web hosting, hybrid virtualization, Dev/Test, and hybrid database.

HPE and Microsoft have teamed to deliver rapid Windows Server installation technology and best practices for leveraging the Azure public cloud to serve those workloads.

For subIT, a Miami-based MSP that caters to the aviation industry, the new solutions and servers have already demonstrated their capacity to streamline day-to-day tasks and simplify engagements, said Joaquin Ochoa, vice president and principal consultant.

By consolidating choices with templates, HPE is taking much of the guesswork out of serving small and midsize customers, Ochoa said.

"They are doing things no one else is doing as far as service, product performance, and the ease of use of the products," he said, which not only removes headaches for partners, but also makes it easier for customers to understand their technology.

Ochoa said his company has already leveraged HPE's new installation technology, which has allowed it to stand up servers 30 to 50 percent faster and taken a lot of the pain out of installing and configuring networks.

"They just made it plain and simply easier," he said.

And the new servers will further drive the practices of partners focused on the SMB market.

The ML30 and DL20 are entry-level servers that deliver the feel and footprint of an enterprise solution, delivering "the horsepower to do advanced computations on a small business budget," Ochoa told CRN.