HPE GreenLake

HPE GreenLake

Industry	Computing, Cloud computing, Web services
Founder(s)	Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard
Headquarters	Houston, Texas, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Antonio Neri (CEO)
Products	IaaS, DBaaS, DaaS, SaaS
Revenue	$7.21 billion (2020, Q4)
Website	hpe.com/us/en/GreenLake.html

HPE GreenLake is a hybrid cloud computing solution provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), an American multinational information technology company. While not a public cloud provider, HPE provides software, hardware, and service-based solutions like HPE Greenlake to assist businesses, organizations, etc. in bringing public cloud services to on-premises data centers. HPE describes HPE GreenLake as being able to deliver "public cloud services and infrastructure as-a-service for your workloads—on premises, fully managed in a pay-per-use model at the edge, in colocations, and in your data center." HPE includes Amazon, Google, and Microsoft among those public cloud platforms supported by GreenLake.

Provider research

This section uses public information to provide some answers to the 18 questions posed in Chapter 6 of the wiki-based guide Choosing and Implementing a Cloud-based Service for Your Laboratory. In some cases, public information could not be found, and a recommendation to further discuss the question with the cloud service provider (CSP) is made. Additionally, as a hybrid cloud provider, some of the questions from Chapter 5 (e.g., "How segregated is our cloud data from another customer's") are not relevant, as they are not providing public cloud services.

1. What experience do you have working with laboratory customers in our specific industry?

Computer labs aside, little information can be found about HPE working with non-tech laboratories. One example that could be found of a medical laboratory working with HPE in the cloud is Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. An HPE GreenLake representative is likely to be able to supply more examples of laboratories that use or have used Dell Technologies Cloud.

2. Can your solution readily integrate with our other systems and business processes, making it easier for our end users to perform their tasks?

HPE's discussion of its integration with other systems and business processes is somewhat limited. In a white paper about HPE GreenLake for private cloud, HPE says:

HPE GreenLake for private cloud also provides a rich set of automation features, for example, tasks, workflows, integration with industry’s various automation tools namely Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Ansible Tower, and such. Tasks are individual automation elements (for example, an individual playbook or a script). Workflows consist of one or more tasks. Tasks and workflows can be integrated with instances, blueprints at different provisioning phases, for example, run tasks or workflows at Pre Provision phase, Provision phase, or Post Provision phase.

In the same paper, HPE adds that "[h]ardware and software are preintegrated at HPE factory and delivered to your colocation facility or data center in as little as 14 days. HPE installs and configures the solution." To discuss integrations more, speak with an HPE GreenLake representative.

3. What is the average total historical downtime for the service(s) we're interested in?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, HPE GreenLake provides on-premises data protection as a service for hybrid cloud platforms using its HPE StoreOnce technologies and other tools, helping laboratories limit the repercussions of their public or private cloud going down.

4. Do we receive comprehensive downtime support in the case of downtime?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. It's also not clear how support services or plans work for HPE GreenLake. A discussion with a representative will be necessary to learn the company's terms for support.

5. Where are your servers located, and how is data securely transferred to and from those servers?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, it will still be useful to understand the underlying technology supplied by HPE in regards to data transmission to public and private cloud instances. However, it doesn't appear its white papers and web pages address data in motion/transit or encryption. As such, it's not clear what security is baked into its offerings for data transfers. This will have to be discussed with an HPE representative.

6. Who will have access to our data (including subcontractors), and what credentials, certifications, and compliance training do they have?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, unlike Dell, HPE doesn't appear to publicly address its policies on secure development of products and applications, including approaches to security training of employees, security testing of systems, etc. You'll have to discuss these topics with an HPE representative.

7. Will our sensitive and regulated data be stored on a machine dedicated to complying with the necessary regulations?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. As noted in prior questions, HPE also doesn't appear to fully address how their offerings comply with certain regulations. HPE does discuss its compliance monitoring service, but it's not clear how compliance testing is performed on its own services.

8. How segregated is our cloud data from another customer's, i.e., will lapses of security of another customer's cloud affect our cloud? (It typically won't, but asking the question will hopefully prompt the provider to better explain how your data is segregated.)

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant.

9. Do you have documented data security policies?

Security appears to rarely be discussed at length by HPE in regard to HPE GreenLake. This is compounded by the lack of an online trust center, which most other providers provide for their cloud offerings. The one document that discusses security doesn't address HPE's approach to security in their offerings but is an advertisement for it managed security services:

• HPE GreenLake management services

10. How do you test your platform's security?

HPE does not appear to publicly address how it tests the security of its GreenLake offerings. For further details, discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

11. What are your policies for security audits, intrusion detection, and intrusion reporting?

HPE GreenLake is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, it doesn't appear that GreenLake-related white papers and web pages mention intrusion detection, let alone how HPE audits its security practices. For further details, discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

12. What data logging information is kept and acted upon in relation to our data?

The terms of service or service level agreements for the HPE GreenLake service could not be located, and as such it's not clear what data they log and how they use it. For further details, discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

13. How thorough are those logs and can we audit them on-demand?

Like the prior question, discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

14. For HIPAA-eligible data (e-PHI) we may have, will you sign a business associate agreement?

The only place HIPAA was found to be discussed in relation to HPE GreenLake is in a November 2020 service brief about Epic Systems and electronic health records: "The service supports HIPAA compliance across core HIPAA tenets of administrative and technical safeguards." Nothing else could be found about HPE's approach to HIPAA and any business associate agreements. Discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

15. What happens to our data should the contract expire or be terminated?

The terms of service or service level agreements for the HPE GreenLake service could not be located, and as such it's not clear what happens to your data upon contract expiration or termination. Presumably you'll be backing up your data and information elsewhere before then. However, discuss with a representative to learn more.

16. What happens to our data should you go out of business or suffer a catastrophic event?

Presumably, if HPE goes out of business, you may have to return equipment, but not without first being able to back up data from that equipment first. You'll have to clarify this with a representative. As for catastrophic events affecting your HPE GreenLake solutions, it's not clear how HPE would approach this. This is a topic for discussion with a representative.

17. Can we use your interface to extract our data when we want, and in what format will it be?

As a hybrid solution, you should be able to extract data at whim to another private of public cloud location.

18. Are your support services native or outsourced/offshored?

It is unclear if support personnel are local to the customer or if support is outsourced to another business and country. Discuss this with an HPE GreenLake representative.

Managed security services

HPE doesn't appear to explicitly advertise "managed security services" on its main webpage. HPE does, however, offer a standard managed services portfolio through its HPE GreenLake Management Services offering. Unfortunately, details are sparse on its managed services page. A blog post on its Community page provides a few more pieces of information. That post states that "Managed Security by HPE GreenLake Management Services is an optional add-on to your HPE GreenLake Management Services contract." This service is split into two tiers: Essential and Enhanced. The difference between the two is essentially:

• Essential: On-premises logging is managed in HPE's security information and event management (SIEM) platform, where it is monitored and analyzed.
• Enhanced: Same monitoring scheme as Essential, plus add-on services like vulnerability management, compliance management, and security transition management.

Additional information

Documentation and other media

• HPE GreenLake and managed security
• HPE Application Migration for Cloud
• HPE Managed Cloud Controls
• HPE GreenLake for private cloud

External links

• HPE hybrid cloud solutions

Further reading

• Sheldon, R. (30 July 2020). "What is HPE GreenLake and how does it work?". TechTarget - SearchConvergedInfrastructure. Archived from the original on 08 December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201208211102/https://searchconvergedinfrastructure.techtarget.com/feature/What-is-HPE-GreenLake-and-how-does-it-work.