Here’s how HPE GreenLake solutions help accelerate business outcomes

Emtech, Dubai-based leading IT solutions provider, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hotpack Global, a manufacturer of food packaging products, to offer flexible and scalable IT infrastructure solution.

In an exclusive interview with Gulf Business, both companies discuss the challenges that Hotpack Global faced and how the HPE GreenLake solution resolved those issues, as well as how Emtech is well-positioned to successfully deliver such solutions to its customers.

How was your journey of adopting HPE GreenLake solutions to your IT infrastructure?

Mike Cheetham, global business director, Hotpack Global: We had been facing a lot of difficulties with our IT infrastructure, including rising costs, unpredictable performance, and the need to manage multiple vendors and contracts. We knew we needed a solution that could help us reduce complexity, improve performance, and lower costs. That’s when we turned to HPE GreenLake solutions. With its unique pay-per-use model, we were able to avoid upfront costs and only pay for what we used. This allowed us to reduce our capital expenditures and shift to an operational expenditure model, which was more predictable and easier to manage.

We also appreciate the flexibility that HPE GreenLake solutions provided us. We were able to choose the services that best suited our needs, and HPE was able to scale up or down as needed, depending on our changing requirements. This allowed us to be more agile and respond to business needs more quickly.

What was the biggest IT infrastructure challenge that needed to be addressed?

Mohammed Jasir, assistant vice president, Hotpack Global: One of the biggest challenges we faced in our IT infrastructure was bringing data to our on-premises system and maintaining control over it. With traditional cloud solutions, we were concerned about data security and compliance, as well as the potential for unexpected costs. Moreover, we were experiencing high latency and slow response times with our legacy infrastructure, which made it difficult to meet our business demands and provide our customers with the best possible experience.

To address these challenges, we turned to HPE GreenLake, which allowed us to bring our data on-premises and maintain full control over it. The solution provided us with a flexible and scalable IT infrastructure that could adapt to our changing business needs.

Additionally, once implemented, we experienced a drastic reduction in latency and response times. This enabled us to provide our customers with faster and more efficient services, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and retention rates.

What areas of your infrastructure are currently under the hood of HPE GreenLake solutions?

Shameer CT, manager – IT Infrastructure, Hotpack Global: We have implemented HPE GreenLake Solutions across multiple areas of our IT infrastructure to meet our business needs, including our mission-critical compute infrastructure. This includes servers for our SAP S/4HANA database and application servers, which are critical to our daily operations. Apart from the production servers, we also run development and quality servers on this infrastructure.

By running these workloads on HPE GreenLake’s compute infrastructure, we have gained flexibility and scalability to meet our business demands while ensuring high performance and reliability. This has helped us to improve the performance and responsiveness of our business-critical applications, resulting in improved efficiency and productivity.

How was your experience working with HPE and Emtech team?

Anvar PB, group technical director, Hotpack Global: Our experience working with both the HPE and Emtech teams has been very positive. Both have played a crucial role in ensuring the success of our project.

The HPE team has been supportive throughout the implementation process, providing us with the necessary technical expertise and guidance to ensure a smooth deployment. They have been responsive to our needs and concerns and have worked collaboratively with our IT team to ensure that the solution meets our business requirements.

Similarly, the Emtech team has been helpful in providing us with the necessary support and assistance during the implementation process. They have been instrumental in facilitating communication between our team and HPE and have helped to ensure that the project stays on track and within budget.

Please list the top three benefits of implementing HPE GreenLake solutions at Hotpack.

Mike Cheetham: Flexibility and scalability: With HPE GreenLake, we have gained the flexibility and scalability we need to meet our business demands. We can quickly and easily scale our IT infrastructure up or down as required, without having to worry about procurement, installation or management. This has allowed us to respond quickly to changing business requirements and has helped us to improve our overall agility.

Control and security: By bringing our data to our on-premises system, we have gained more control over our data and improved security. This has helped us to comply with data security regulations and has given us greater confidence in our ability to protect our critical business data.

Cost savings: HPE GreenLake has helped us to reduce our initial investment and ongoing costs. By only paying for what we use, we can avoid the high upfront costs associated with traditional IT infrastructure deployments. This has helped us to optimise our IT spending and has provided us with greater financial flexibility to invest in other areas of our business.

How did you see a fit between the need gap of the customer and HPE GreenLake’s attributes?

Jethin Krishnan, executive manager – Digital Transformation, Emtech: When we first engaged with Hotpack, we understood that their IT infrastructure was facing some challenges due to the rapid growth of their business. They needed a solution that would provide them with the flexibility to scale their IT resources as per their business needs, without making any large upfront capital investments.

HPE GreenLake was a perfect fit for their needs. It offered a pay-per-use model that allowed them to consume IT resources as they needed and pay only for what they used. This was particularly important for Hotpack, as they needed to ensure that they had the resources to support their business growth but did not want to over-provision and waste resources and money.

Moreover, HPE GreenLake’s unique attributes such as its automated resource management and optimised infrastructure allowed Hotpack to focus on their core business objectives while the IT infrastructure was taken care of. HPE GreenLake also provides customers with a dashboard that gives them a clear view of their IT usage, which was particularly useful for Hotpack as it helped them to plan their resource usage better and avoid any unexpected costs.

In addition to these attributes, HPE GreenLake’s energy-efficient infrastructure and reduced carbon footprint allowed Hotpack to be more sustainable while optimising their IT infrastructure.

Can you share some highlights of the engagement with the customer, Emtech and the HPE team on this implementation?

Vikram Jindal, solutions manager – Systems, Cloud and MS, Emtech: Firstly, our team worked closely with Hotpack and their SAP application team to understand their specific business needs and IT requirements. We conducted a thorough assessment of their existing IT infrastructure, which allowed us to design a solution that is tailored to their needs. The research included the current environment design, the application structure for SAP and the modules developed for industry specific needs catering to Hotpack’s business requirements.

The HPE GreenLake technology solution that we recommended is a fully managed and scalable solution which enables them to only pay for the resources they need and use. Furthermore, it enables them to be agile on introducing additional services utilising the additional provisioned capacities while only paying for the usage.

One of the key technical highlights of the solution is its ability to provide real-time visibility and control over their IT resources through the HPE GreenLake central portal. This centralised dashboard allows Hotpack to easily monitor and manage their entire IT environment, including their on-premises and cloud-based resources, from a single location. Furthermore, it also enables them to get visibility on growth patterns and scale dynamically.

In your opinion what trends will drive adoption of HPE GreenLake solution by customers in UAE?

Sunaij Pallimalil – director of Business and Strategy, Emtech: We have seen that businesses in the UAE are increasingly looking for ways to rapidly scale up or down their IT resources as per their business needs. HPE GreenLake solution allows them to do so without the need for upfront capital investments, providing a pay-per-use model that can easily adapt to their changing business needs.

The second trend that will drive the adoption of HPE GreenLake solution is the increasing focus on sustainability and reducing carbon footprint. HPE GreenLake is a highly efficient solution that allows customers to optimise their IT infrastructure and reduce energy consumption, which aligns well with the UAE’s vision for a sustainable future.

Lastly, the increasing complexity of IT environments is another trend that will drive the adoption of HPE GreenLake. As businesses in the UAE continue to adopt new technologies such as AI and IoT, their IT environments become more complex, and managing them becomes more challenging. HPE GreenLake provides a simplified solution that takes care of the complexities and allows customers to focus on their core business objectives.

How do you see Emtech positioned to win big with the focus businesses have on digital transformation?

Suresh Vanian – VP, Emtech and ISPG Technologies: At Emtech, we understand that digital transformation is not just about adopting new technologies but rather about the transformation of the entire business model. This requires a strategic approach that considers the customer’s business objectives, their industry, and the competitive landscape.

Our team of experts have a deep understanding of the latest technologies such as AI, machine learning, IoT, and cloud computing. We work closely with our customers to understand their business needs and help them adopt these technologies in a way that aligns with their business objectives. Our goal is to help our customers unlock the full potential of these technologies and achieve their digital transformation goals.

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