SAN DIEGO – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) launched a new Kubernetes-focused platform that allows customers to deploy cloud native and non-cloud native applications on any infrastructure, public cloud, or edge location. The platform taps into a pair of recent software acquisition by the hardware giant and further builds on its as-a-service push.

The HPE Container Platform allows a container to be built once and deployed with “one click” on any bare metal, virtual machines (VMs), and cloud instance. This is designed to make it easier for enterprise IT departments to speed up the deployment of their containerized infrastructure and reduce developer workload.

Jason Schroedl, VP of marketing for HPE's Blue Data, in an email to SDxCentral wrote that the platform's bare metal support provided "unique differentiated capabilities" with greater efficiency and cost savings. But he also noted that the company recognizes that most containers today are run on VMs or cloud instances.

To that end, the product can run and manage Kubernetes on any public cloud, including Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and their associated managed Kubernetes services. However, it's not yet designed to work directly with new cloud management platforms like Google Anthos or Microsoft Azure Arc.

The turnkey platform taps into HPE’s acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data software vendor BlueData last year and MapR in August.

BlueData makes a software platform that uses Docker containers to make it easier for companies to deploy large-scale machine learning and big data analytics environments. MapR, which HPE “rescued” from the brink of collapse, provides enterprise-grade file system and cloud-native storage services.

HPE’s Container Platform uses BlueData software as the control plane for container management and the MapR distributed file system and object store for persistent data with containers. It then uses Kubernetes for container orchestration. This package supports the containerization of cloud-native, microservices-architected applications and on-premises applications with persistent data.

Schroedl also explained that the platform builds on HPE's own internal Kubernetes and container efforts, including its advisory and consulting services offered through its HPE Pointnext, which itself was bolstered by its acquisitions of CTP and Red Pixie, and other Kubernetes-related efforts like its HPE Cloud Volumes.

Phil Davis, president of hybrid IT at HPE, explained in a blog post that the platform is “a major step closer to delivering the cloud experience to all apps and data.”

HPE claims its platform differentiates in the market by using an unaltered version of Kubernetes. This should help interoperability across cloud platforms compared to other options that might use altered Kubernertes iterations.

The launch also comes on the heels of HPE CEO Antonio Neri pledging to offer all of the company’s portfolio as a service by 2022.