INDUSTRY
Enterprise Technology Services
Service Providers
CHALLENGES
Support enterprise-scale DRaaS with a more flexible infrastructure financing model.
SOLUTION
Transform infrastructure costs from CAPEX to OPEX with HPE GreenLake.
GreenLake allowed our DRaaS operations to achieve better cost transparency—and competitiveness—than was possible when we bought our own servers.
DRaaS Product Manager
Using HPE GreenLake to Develop a More Cost-Competitive Technology Service Offering
A technology services provider needed a more flexible financing model for the infrastructure used to support cloud-based DRaaS provided to customers. Owning and operating DRaaS servers as an in-house capital expense was hampering both cost transparency and operational flexibility.
HPE GreenLake’s infrastructure-as-a service model offered a dramatic improvement over the status quo. GreenLake allows for the rapid provisioning of DR capacity as required by customers—without the cost bloat and management hassle of purchasing servers as a capital expense. With GreenLake, DR infrastructure expenses are transformed into a single, predictable monthly bill. Improved cost transparency enables more competitive service pricing (alongside a more consistent profit margin).
Challenge: Find a More Efficient Financial Model for Provisioning DRaaS Infrastructure
A North America-based, international technology services provider has a successful business line offering Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) to enterprise customers. This offering enables clients to transform disaster recovery into a cloud-based service that can be scaled rapidly. Through economies of scale, DRaaS could offer a substantial cost advantage for customers.
This technology service provider sought a infrastructure-as-aservice model aligned to the flexibility and dynamism of their DRaaS offering. The ideal solution would need to provide:
- Rapidly provisioned, just-in-time infrastructure capable of supporting client DR workload requirements.
- Reliable, timely delivery of additional infrastructure units to ensure seamless service scalability.
- An efficient, transparent financing model that would enable a move away from owning and managing DRaaS servers as a capital expense.
Solution: DRaaS Infrastructure as a Service Transforms CAPEX to OPEX
HPE GreenLake emerged as the best choice that could fulfill all the criteria discussed above. GreenLake’s infrastructure-as-a-service model aligned perfectly with the need for a more cost-transparent DRaaS service offering.
With GreenLake, DRaaS infrastructure costs can truly be transformed from CAPEX to OPEX. Instead of making huge capital outlays on equipment, depreciating them over time, and hoping for a solid ROI, DRaaS infrastructure costs can now be managed as a predictable monthly operational expenditure that is locked in for the length of the contract.
HP’s industry-leading procurement and supply chain capabilities enable this service provider to ensure that consistent, quality components are utilized in every server provided by GreenLake. When a component availability issue does arise, HP transparently communicates on the issue and works to identify a replacement that can achieve equivalent performance and reliability. Consistent parts are essential so that adequate stocks of spares can be maintained and utilized seamlessly across all DRaaS infrastructure.
Results: Enhanced Transparency Eliminates Hidden Costs and Drives Competitive Pricing
The transition to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service model has helped eliminate the hidden costs that come with owning and operating infrastructure at the scale required to support enterprise DRaaS capabilities.
Owning and operating servers as a capital expense generates labor, facilities, support, and tax expenses. These expenses are distributed throughout the organization (often in different organizational silos), making them difficult to quantify upfront when investing in a server. Before GreenLake, it was difficult to generate a robust cost model for the true TCO of DRaaS servers.
GreenLake has not only helped bring costs down overall, but dramatically improved the cost transparency of DRaaS infrastructure. Now, virtually all the costs associated with DRaaS servers are part of the same, simple monthly bill. This transparency helps everyone from the finance team to the product engineering team understand how to optimally set DRaaS service pricing to be profitable and highly competitive in the marketplace.
