HP Helion Updates include Eucalyptus AWS Cloud Tool Hewlett Packard updated several components in its Helion cloud tools portfolio. This included the acquisition of HP Helion Eucalyptus technology for creating private clouds compatible to Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS). HP’s Helion enterprise cloud platform includes hardware, software, and services hosted in public, private, and hybrid clouds. AWS tool enhancements were also made by HP. The Helion OpenStack product was updated for the popular open-source cloud computing platform. HP’s Helion Development Platform includes tools for creating, deploying, and delivering native cloud applications. This portfolio will now include HP Helion Eucalyptus, a new open-source technology that leverages the HP’s September acquisition of Eucalyptus System Inc. cloud vendor Eucalyptus. This site reported that HP had acquired Eucalyptus to gain a tool approved by Amazon to enable AWS enabled workloads in its private clouds service. “Eucalyptus has signed a compatibility agreement with Amazon in March 2012. This allows it to use Amazon APIs, including Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), for its open-source private cloud OS software.” In a last week announcement, HP listed the following updates for the Eucalyptus Tool:

• AWS Cloud Formation compatible service — Service deployment templates for application deployment that simplify service delivery and reduce errors in complex configurations. Customers can reuse existing AWS Cloud Formation templates to benefit from the new service on a private HP Helion Eucalyptus cloud.
• The HP Helion Eucalyptus Cloud Manager – A web-based tool that allows you to manage S3-compatible object storage. Users don’t need separate tools to create, modify, delete, or upload and download buckets. All features can be used within the browser on both HP Helion Eucalyptus clouds and AWS clouds.

HP stated in a statement that Eucalyptus was added to the HP Helion portfolio to allow customers to deploy AWS workloads into cloud environments they control (private, managed), meeting customer demand for cost-effective alternatives. “HP Helion Eucalyptus can be used as a private, managed, or hybrid cloud solution to address a wide range of customer requirements. HP Helion OpenStack 1. received security automation, configuration, deployment capabilities, software-defined storage, and lifecycle management improvements. Administration updates were made to the Helion Development Platform regarding user management, logging and dashboards. Additionally, it was possible to roll back apps to earlier versions during development. Bill Hilf, an HP executive, stated that the continued expansion of HP Helion solutions is a reflection of the momentum we’ve enjoyed since launching our Helion portfolio cloud products and services last spring. “The HP Helion OpenStack and HP Helion Development Platform updates, along with the first Eucalyptus product under Helion, reflect HP’s commitment to today’s most important cloud ecosystems. They also work to create a hybrid cloud environment that is easy to integrate into existing IT environments. The three new products are now available with varying pricing.