Agentic AI at the core of HPE networking, GreenLake updates
The infrastructure titan launched several new products and services aimed at bolstering customers' appetite and abilities for AI workload optimization.
LAS VEGAS -- Under the backdrop of a towering Sphere display, HPE CEO Antonio Neri on Tuesday laid out the company's vision for networking in the agentic AI age with new hardware and partnerships for its key infrastructure products.
Pointing to product launches and upgrades for GreenLake, Aruba Networking, and Private Cloud AI, Neri said HPE is focused on providing enterprises a seamless experience in any stage of AI adoption.
Early-stage adopters like Brandon O’Driscoll, an Azure systems engineer for clean energy company NextEra Energy, said HPE’s product launches were welcome news.
“We’re still doing a lot of assessment, but to have a turnkey solution -- that would be really helpful,” O’Driscoll said.
Similar to other major IT infrastructure vendors recently, HPE’s key releases had a common thread: Agentic AI will be at the core of its networking and hybrid cloud efforts for the foreseeable future.
"With Agentic AI, AI is no longer just a tool -- it is actively engaged, automating workflows, making real time decisions, and driving business efficiency," Neri said during a keynote presentation. "Soon, it will be IT's responsibility to manage a digital workforce of thousands of specialized agents working across the enterprise."
Touting a growing list of partners, including Nvidia, Accenture, AMD and many others, Neri said the rapid innovation fueling HPE's ambitious AI goals addresses a growing need for the entire IT ecosystem. From new servers that will take up less rack space as demand pushes the data center to its physical limits, to unleashing AI agents, HPE claims its portfolio aims to ease the pressure on IT leaders to adopt AI quickly.
Agentic AI has been a common thread among enterprise technology providers this year, with agentic systems powering everything from apps and security software to data center infrastructure.
Aristos Dimitriou, an architect at aerospace manufacturing company Raytheon, said agentic AI capabilities could lead to new efficiencies that speed up workflows between companies and their customers.
"There are a lot of possibilities,” Dimitriou said, noting that his company mostly works with government. “Government can be really, really slow. So, what HPE is doing is a key driver to improving speed through those new offerings."
Unleashing AI agents for Aruba
Neri said HPE's products address key pain points for customers who are juggling AI needs with rising costs and rapidly changing infrastructure.
"Much of today's infrastructure is made up of layers of legacy IT that's been built over decades and is increasingly difficult to manage and modernize," he said. "Your cloud and virtualization costs are rising, and many of you are pushing back on commercial business models and solutions that lock you in."
Neri said the company's new agentic AI mesh in Aruba Central, the cloud-based network management platform, would arm enterprises with secure networking automation.
"Paired with a networking copilot, these AI agents leverage a collection of reasoning models context-tuned for security-first, AI-powered networking," Neri said. "Think of them as an extra admin team that never sleeps, always working for you. The result is a network that thinks for itself -- autonomously identifying problems, offering solutions, and getting smarter over time."
Building a modern hybrid cloud
Neri pointed to research from Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia, that showed AI has forced the majority of enterprises to rethink deployment plans.
Neri said GreenLake allows control over multi-customer, multi-cloud environments, across multiple vendors, and multiple generations of IT infrastructure.
"You need the flexibility to run your workloads where it makes the most sense -- across clouds, [colocations], and the edge -- maintaining speed and agility, but with more control," he said. "That is the value of hybrid cloud… For AI to be a truly transformative force in your organization, you need an integrated operational hybrid stack that flows as one with your infrastructure.”
Shane Snider, a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience, covers IT infrastructure at Informa TechTarget.
