HP today announced that it is helping SFR, a leading French telecom operator, to generate new revenues by extending the advantages of cloud computing to its business customers.
HP and SFR have built a complete cloud services platform designed to enable SFR to offer IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS) with utility-based pricing to French companies.
The HP Cloud Services Enablement (CSE) portfolio for Communications Service Providers (CSP) integrates HP software, hardware and services for cloud services deployments. For IaaS, the compute services offering includes HP Aggregation Platform for SaaS, HP Cloud Service Automation and HP BladeSystem Matrix.
Business benefits for SFR customers are said to include predictable operating costs, less capital investment and decreased risk in new technology adoption.
By simplifying the launch of private-public cloud hybrids, HP says it is enabling SFR to accelerate growth in its enterprise business that already serves 150,000 companies. SFR is also said to have selected the HP CSE portfolio primarily for one of its key capabilities, namely rapid time to market.
In addition to its business customers, SFR serves 30 million consumers.
“Cloud services represent a major opportunity for both SFR and our business customers,” said Paul Corbel, general manager, Business Team, SFR. “HP’s cloud expertise and proven technology will help SFR become the trusted provider for a wide range of ‘as a service’ offerings.”
The HP offering, which is tightly integrated with SFR software enablers, is hosted within SFR data centers.
By leveraging the capabilities of the HP portfolio, SFR can evolve its offerings beyond IaaS to include additional cloud-based services, such as communications as a service (CaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).
“SFR is providing French companies with cost-effective IT infrastructure and, at the same time, building an attractive business with cloud services enablement from HP,” said Erwan Menard, vice president and general manager, Communications and Media Solutions, HP. “SFR is demonstrating the powerful multiplier effect customers enjoy when advanced HP hardware, software and services are integrated into a complete solution.”