HPE LAUNCH EVENT 2020, LONDON: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) unveiled a new portfolio of as-a-service offerings, which it claimed would aid operators in accelerating deployments of 5G services and their path to revenue growth.

The company unveiled its open, cloud-native 5G core network product, HPE 5G Core Stack, which will allow operators to deploy infrastructure on a pay-as-you go basis through the company’s consumption-based IT model GreenLake. The service will be available globally as a pre-integrated software and hardware offering, starting from the second half of the year.

Phil Mottram, VP and GM at HPE Communications and Media Solutions (pictured), said the company’s new offering was addressing key challenges for operators presented by 5G, noting return on investment to be among the main struggles.

He put an emphasis on the HPE’s model GreenLake, which turned all of the company’s products, be it hardware or software, into a consumption-based model.

“We can help with this monetisation problem by linking our charges that we make to the operator with when they take money from 5G customers”, he added.

Mottram said HPE was offering operators a cloud native 5G core needed for developing services like network slicing.

Business case
He claimed 5G was “all about enterprise”, as it would bring bigger revenue opportunities in enterprise than in the consumer space. “It’s less about connecting employees, cars, whatever it might be. It’s the extension of that technology across all of enterprises that represents the opportunity for enterprises, but also for telecom operators”.

“Openness is essential to the evolutionary nature of 5G and with HPE 5G Core Stack telcos can reduce operational costs, deploy features faster and keep themselves open to multiple networks and technologies while avoiding being locked-in to a single vendor approach,” Mottram added.

During the event the company also unveiled its Aruba Air Pass and Aruba Air Slice products, aiming at enhancing the integration of the network and customer edges with seamless roaming from mobile 5G to Wi-Fi networks.

Mottram said the company already had about 16.5 million Aruba hotspots in enterprises across the world.