Data security and backup software specialist Symantec and IT heavyweight Hewlett-Packard (HP) are partnering for a disaster recovery as-a-service (DRaaS) product anchored by HP Helion OpenStack.
HP Helion Openstack is the Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech company’s business-oriented take on the popular open-source cloud computing platform. Announced in May, HP Helion OpenStack represents a $1 billion investment by the company, excluding data center build-out projects.
In August, HP said its Helion portfolio has helped lift its cloud computing segment. While reporting the company’s third-quarter 2014 financial results, HP’s CEO Meg Whitman said in an earnings call that since launching Helion, “we’re seeing strong engagement from customers, and we’re extending our share leadership in the private cloud.”
By partnering with Symantec, HP is leveraging its OpenStack know-how to help businesses keep their applications running in the event of IT mishaps.
“The solution will leverage the HP enterprise cloud for cost savings, automation, and a self-service user experience,” wrote Alejandro Froyo, director of HP Continuity Services, in a company blog post. “This collaboration will allow customers to protect their workloads whether they run in a traditional IT environment or are hosted in OpenStack-based cloud environments.”
The solution “focuses on application recovery, failover, and failback and will monitor the most widely applied applications in the market,” he continued. Froyo also revealed that the companies aren’t only targeting well-heeled corporations with flush IT departments.
“The service will minimize recovery times, data loss, and associated downtime costs for any size organization – from large enterprises to small and medium businesses,” stated Froyo. The service will also be aimed at industry-specific cloud workloads, and support several compliance standards, including PCI, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and FISMA.
The product is on track for a late 2015 delivery date. Symantec will provide the software while HP will handle the infrastructure end, including the facilities that host the DRaaS solution and the operations team charged with maintaining it.
Symantec-HP DRaaS will support recovery, failover, and failback activities on public and private clouds, as well as on-premise IT.
“This collaboration will help our customers to protect their workloads no matter if they run on traditional IT or are hosted within HP Helion OpenStack-based cloud environments,” claimed Symantec’s Doug Matthews, vice president of Information Availability, in a statement.