HP plans to invest more than $1bn over the next two years to develop and offer cloud-computing products and services. It says it will make its OpenStack-based public cloud services available in 20 data centres over the next 18 months. OpenStack is an open-source cloud computing platform for public and private cloud services with other key players including Red Hat, Oracle and Dell.
"Customer challenges today extend beyond cloud. They include how to manage, control and scale applications in a hybrid environment that spans multiple technology approaches," Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer, HP, said in a statement.
Cloud services have been booming as large enterprises and service providers work on cloud apps. It is a very competitive market, however, where Amazon.com and Google recently slashed prices of most of their cloud computing services as other companies join the fray.
Cisco also laid out plans in March to offer cloud computing services, pledging to spend $1bn over the next two years, while Microsoft said it will increase its cloud storage offering for business users 40-fold.
