Elevating Cloud Efficiency with as-a-Service IT

Summary

In this case study blueAPACHE is the customer rather than the supplier: Hewlett Packard Enterprise documents how blueAPACHE rebuilt the infrastructure behind its emPOWER private cloud on HPE GreenLake, HPE Synergy and HPE Primera so that its own infrastructure costs scale with customer revenue instead of running ahead of it. It matters to a blueAPACHE buyer because it describes the platform every emPOWER Cloud, Storage-as-a-Service and DRaaS customer runs on, and the economic model that lets blueAPACHE add capacity ahead of demand without capital outlay. The source is HPE marketing collateral dated February 2021, so the growth figure and product set it quotes are over five years old and are presented here as historical, not current.

Key facts

Customer

blueAPACHE. HPE classifies it as a service provider in the Pacific Rim region. As described by HPE, blueAPACHE runs a private cloud called emPOWER that serves customers across the globe from an Australian base, is accountable for every aspect of the application delivery supply chain from hosting to end-user experience, and charges monthly on consumption. Founder and managing director Chris Marshall describes the target market as mid-to-large enterprises that need a provider responsible for application delivery across the globe and that have complex requirements without the internal scale to move into challenging geographies.

Sector

Service provider infrastructure. The engagement is relevant to every sector blueAPACHE serves because it describes the platform behind emPOWER Cloud, Storage as a Service and Disaster Recovery as a Service, and the pathology provider Storage-as-a-Service case study was delivered jointly by blueAPACHE and HPE on this foundation.

Challenge

Before HPE GreenLake, blueAPACHE had to maintain reserve compute and storage for new customer workloads, forecast hardware needs typically 12 months out, and make large capital investments to buy capacity for current and projected demand. Excess capacity sat idle for many months of the year, and blueAPACHE waited for customer revenue to catch up with its outlay before seeing a return. General manager of technology Michael Zuppa framed it as needing the same pay-as-you-grow model for procuring cloud infrastructure that blueAPACHE offers its own customers for consuming it.

Solution

After evaluating multiple vendors, blueAPACHE selected HPE to upgrade the emPOWER Cloud infrastructure, delivered as a service through HPE GreenLake. The foundation is HPE Synergy composable infrastructure for compute, HPE Primera mission-critical storage, HPE GreenLake Management Services to manage the new infrastructure, and a dedicated HPE GreenLake account support manager providing consultation and on-site operational service, with VMware for virtualisation and orchestration. Under this model reserve capacity is always available but blueAPACHE pays for it only when used, and when a customer's workload contracts the freed compute or storage is reingested into the wider cloud for other customers.

The current emPOWER Cloud brochure describes the same cornerstone technologies: a Tier 1 HPE reference architecture with the latest-generation HPE Synergy compute modules, all-flash HPE Primera SSD arrays for mission-critical workloads, and HPE BladeSystem servers for high-performance compute, in ISO 27001-certified infrastructure.

A caveat on the hypervisor

VMware appears in this case study as the virtualisation and orchestration layer. That is what the 2021 HPE document states, and it is reported here on that basis. It is not confirmed anywhere in blueAPACHE's published material as the primary or exclusive hypervisor across emPOWER Cloud today, and the source is five years old — a period over which hypervisor licensing economics changed substantially across the industry. If your workload placement, licensing position or migration path depends on the hypervisor, confirm it directly rather than inferring it from this page.

Why a supplier's own capital model is worth a buyer's attention

This case study is unusual in being about blueAPACHE's balance sheet rather than a customer's environment, and it is tempting to read it as vendor marketing. There is a substantive reason for a prospective customer to care.

Under the old model, blueAPACHE's ability to take on a new workload depended on whether it had already bought the capacity twelve months earlier. That creates two failure modes a customer feels directly: a provider that cannot absorb your growth without a procurement cycle, and a provider under pressure to fill capacity it has already paid for. Neither is in the customer's interest.

A consumption model removes both. Capacity is available before it is paid for, so growth is a configuration decision rather than a capital one, and contraction returns resources to the pool rather than stranding them. The practical translation for a customer is the ability to scale up quickly and — the half that matters more and is more often omitted — to scale down without the provider resisting.

The honest limit on this reasoning: the arrangement is described as it stood in February 2021 and blueAPACHE does not publish its current commercial arrangements with HPE. The structure may have changed.

Services used

blueAPACHE consumed HPE GreenLake, HPE Synergy, HPE Primera and HPE GreenLake Management Services. The blueAPACHE services that run on the resulting platform are:

• emPOWER Cloud and the Cloud pillar: private and hybrid IaaS with consumption billing and a self-service portal.
• Storage as a Service: private S3-compatible capacity on the HPE storage estate.
• Disaster Recovery as a Service and Offsite Backup as a Service: recovery and backup targets hosted in emPOWER Cloud.
• Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services: management of servers, storage and virtualisation for customers on the platform.
• Core Network and Data Centre Interconnect: the emPOWER Network's direct connection into emPOWER Cloud, described as protected against a single point of failure.

Outcomes

Outcomes below are as stated in the HPE case study as at February 2021.

What this case does and does not establish

What it supports. That emPOWER Cloud runs on an HPE reference architecture — Synergy compute, Primera all-flash storage — and that blueAPACHE procures that infrastructure on a consumption basis rather than by capital purchase. That the arrangement was in place and functioning as described in February 2021. That HPE was sufficiently satisfied with the relationship to publish the account and to name blueAPACHE Service Provider of the Year in 2021.

What it does not support. Any current growth rate — the 30 per cent figure is from February 2021 and is historical. Any claim about the current hypervisor. That the HPE product set is unchanged five years on. HPE's framing that blueAPACHE is "one of only a few service providers" to own end-to-end cloud infrastructure is HPE's assertion, not an independently verified one, and the superlatives in HPE's voice — "world-class private cloud" — are not reproduced here as blueAPACHE fact.

Read it for the architecture and the economic model, not for the numbers. Those are the durable parts; the figures have aged.

Comparing a consumption-based proposal

This case concerns blueAPACHE’s own platform economics and operation. A customer should separately identify chargeable units, fixed commitments, growth approvals and how consumption is reconciled. Supplier financing and customer pricing are different arrangements. Historical platform investment does not establish current unit rates or a right to scale down without commitment. Use the case for design rationale, then obtain the customer’s charging basis and cloud and recovery schedules.

Sources and scope

This section connects the sources identified on this page with the KB service-scope catalogue and the terms and conditions guide. Comparison and planning points describe matters to settle for a proposed engagement, not additional service inclusions or new case-study results.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the customer in this case study?

blueAPACHE itself. The document is HPE marketing collateral from February 2021 describing how blueAPACHE, as an HPE customer, rebuilt the infrastructure behind its emPOWER private cloud on HPE GreenLake.

What hardware runs emPOWER Cloud?

HPE Synergy composable infrastructure for compute and HPE Primera mission-critical all-flash storage, delivered as a service through HPE GreenLake and managed with HPE GreenLake Management Services. The current emPOWER Cloud brochure also lists HPE BladeSystem servers for high-performance compute.

Which hypervisor does emPOWER Cloud use?

The 2021 case study names VMware for virtualisation and orchestration. blueAPACHE does not confirm anywhere in its published material that VMware is the primary or exclusive hypervisor today. Given the age of the source, confirm directly if it matters to your licensing or migration.

Why did blueAPACHE move to a consumption model for its own infrastructure?

Under its previous model blueAPACHE had to forecast hardware 12 months ahead and buy capacity with capital that sat idle until customer revenue caught up. HPE GreenLake keeps reserve capacity available but bills it only when used, so blueAPACHE's infrastructure costs track customer revenue.

Why should a customer care how blueAPACHE buys its own hardware?

Because it determines whether the provider can absorb your growth without a procurement cycle, and whether it has an incentive to fill capacity it has already paid for. A consumption model makes scaling up a configuration decision — and, more importantly, makes scaling down something the provider can accommodate rather than resist.

Is the 30 per cent growth rate current?

No. The figure is from February 2021 and must not be presented as a current growth rate. It is recorded here as a historical outcome attributed by HPE to new customers and expanding existing customers.

What does this mean for a customer buying emPOWER Cloud?

Capacity can be added ahead of demand without blueAPACHE waiting on a capital cycle, and workloads can scale down with freed resources returned to the pool. emPOWER Cloud customers see this as monthly consumption billing, a self-service portal with scale-up and scale-down, and published service levels of 99.999 per cent for cloud services and 100 per cent for storage.

Where is the platform located?

blueAPACHE states that customer data is stored and processed within Australian-based data centres, and HPE describes emPOWER as serving global customers from an Australian base. The data sovereignty statement does not name data centre operators or sites, and the emPOWER Network extends to points of presence in the US, London and Singapore.

What is blueAPACHE's relationship with HPE?

HPE is a core infrastructure partner: emPOWER Cloud is built on an HPE reference architecture, and blueAPACHE's managed services brochure cites it as HPE Service Provider of the Year 2021. The pathology provider Storage-as-a-Service solution was built by blueAPACHE with HPE.

Which blueAPACHE executives are named in the case study?

Chris Marshall, founder and managing director, and Michael Zuppa, general manager of technology, in the roles they held when HPE published the document in 2021. Michael Zuppa is now chief executive officer.

How much of this page can I rely on?

The architecture and the economic model are durable and corroborated by the current emPOWER Cloud brochure. The growth figure, the hypervisor and the exact product set are five years old and should be confirmed before use.

Related

• emPOWER Cloud — the platform this infrastructure runs
• Cloud services and solutions — the pillar it sits in
• Storage as a Service — built on the HPE storage estate
• Disaster Recovery as a Service — hosted on this platform
• Offsite Backup as a Service — the backup target
• Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services — management of the layer above
• Core network and data centre interconnect — how the network reaches it
• Our partners — the HPE relationship
• Vendor partners — the full partner record
• Data sovereignty and privacy — where the data sits
• blueAPACHE security case study (CyberArk) — the other blueAPACHE-as-customer study
• Pathology provider Storage-as-a-Service case study — delivered jointly with HPE
• ARN Channel News: blueAPACHE overhauls cloud platform with HPE — the coverage
• Why geographic redundancy is essential to cloud success — the resilience argument
• All case studies — the full evidence set

Source

Drawn from the HPE GreenLake case study on blueAPACHE's emPOWER Cloud and its origin page; the blueAPACHE case study index; the emPOWER Cloud and Network brochures; the vendor partner record; and the data sovereignty and residency statement and verification register. The February 2021 growth figure is presented as historical and is not restated as current. The hypervisor caveat reflects that VMware is named only in this 2021 source and is not confirmed in blueAPACHE's published material as the primary or exclusive hypervisor. The discussion of why a supplier's capital model matters to a buyer is general commercial context, not a blueAPACHE claim.

Knowledge Base