The two companies announced a broad range of Docker ready HP servers, which will be available in Q4, and a broad range of Docker integrations and other solutions for HPE, which are available now.
HPE CEO Meg Whitman
LAS VEGAS – Today, during HPE CEO Meg Whitman’s opening keynote, Docker CEO Ben Golub joined her onstage to announce a major strategic partnership between the two companies. The deal will produce a plethora of Docker-validated preconfigured HPE solutions in the Q4 timeframe. These will include Docker ready HPE Servers and Docker ready Converged and Composable HPE Systems, as well as a joint sales, engineering and services go-to-market for Docker Datacenter on any infrastructure.
“What we are announcing today is that the Docker engine will be embedded into every single HP server,” Whitman told her keynote audience. “We are super excited about our partnership and what it can do for our customers.”
“When you take the leader in cloud infrastructure and combine it with the leader in containerization, it opens up new avenues for customers,” Golub said. “This will make adoption of container technology, which is already proceeding at a record pace, move significantly faster.”
Antonio Neri, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Group, HPE
“For us, this is a big announcement and is something unique, which we have been working on for some time,” said Antonio Neri, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “When I think about the future challenges customers face, this is where innovation really matters, so we are bringing together Docker and HPE to solve those challenges.”
As part of the strategic alliance, HPE and Docker will deliver a variety of solutions which will be available through all HPE’s channels. HPE will provide the support, and be the single throat for the customer to choke.
HPE will offer pre-tested and pre-configured server platforms, including HPE ProLiant, HPE Apollo and HPE Cloudline, which are certified Docker-ready for Docker Engine and Docker containers. HPE will also offer Docker ready Converged and Composable HPE Systems, for HPE Synergy, HPE BladeSystem and HPE Converged System.
“The customer today wants solutions, not just technologies, and putting the best technology like Docker with the best software-defined stacks is what customers are looking for,” Neri said. “That’s going to be a key competitive advantage here.”
Ben Golub, Docker’s CEO
“One of Docker’s value propositions is portability and that absolutely doesn’t change, in terms of the ability to move from one environment to another,” Golub stated. “But if you tell a customer their new servers or hyperconverged product is coming Docker ready and can integrate seamlessly with HPE OneView, it makes it that much better.”
The two companies also announced a joint go-to-market strategy for Docker Datacenter. HPE and Docker will work together on joint sales and support programs across HPE customers and channel partners, as well as ensuring that Docker Datacenter works seamlessly for containerized applications deployed across public cloud, composable infrastructure, hyperconverged infrastructure, converged storage and Docker ready HPE servers.
Neri stressed that the Docker partnership represents the future.
“What we are doing here with Docker is the future, providing the speed and agility to deliver business outcomes,” Neri said. “That’s the power of the new stack. The public cloud today has been the old stack and traditional workloads. This partnership accelerates the creation of distributed applications for new workloads.”
Golub emphasized that they will be able to support the present as well, while moving to the future.
“Part of the excitement around Docker is getting agility without having to transform your infrastructure, and it will run consistently,” he said. “This lets you move in an evolutionary way towards a new stack. Whether you choose to run in a legacy infrastructure or a composable next-gen one or the public cloud, all those options are there.”
The two companies also announced a large assortment of joint integrations, reference architectures and plug-ins.
“There are twelve different integrations across many areas,” Golub said. “It’s just amazing.”
All these HPE container-enabled and technologies have been fully integrated and tested with Docker. They include HPE Reference Configuration for Docker Datacenter on HPE Hyper Converged 380, and HPE Reference Architecture for Docker Datacenter for the Converged Architecture 700.
A Docker-integrated Native Volume Plugin for HPE 3PAR StoreServ all-flash arrays provides this native capacity for the first time – [previously HPE had supported Docker through OpenStack, and continue to do so].
Docker-integrated networking has been enabled at HPE by the addition of Docker container support to the HPE Distributed Cloud Networking solution. It reduces time for application deployment from months to minutes. Docker has also been integrated into HPE SiteScope, an agentless software for monitoring the availability and performance of distributed applications and IT infrastructure, and into HPE OneView management software, letting customers quickly deploy and manage the infrastructure that Docker Engine, and Docker containers run on.
Docker capability was also announced for HPE AppDefender, HPE Operations Bridge monitoring, CMS and Universal Directory configuration management, and HPE Helion Cloud Suite.
“The takeaway here is that becoming agile, Dockerized and container-based is closer than ever,” Golub said. “It’s literally two clicks away with this partnership – it’s fulfilment support and integration, everything you need.”
While the Docker ready HPE Servers are scheduled for GA in the fourth quarter of 2016, the Docker-integrated solutions spanning HPE’s storage, networking and software assets are available now.
