HPE now allows customers to run its most powerful server on AWS but is it actually a good idea?

(Image credit: HPE)

U7inh instance has 1,920 virtual CPUs and 32TB of memory, and you can run 4 of these
Need to sustain SAP workloads is what encouraged HPE to work with AWS
However, there's also the fact HPE may be helping AWS get newer, lucrative leads

As businesses face relentless data growth, challenges like data silos and outdated legacy systems, such as Unix-based servers, increasingly stand in the way of progress.

HPE has positioned its Compute Scale-up Server 3200, which it launched in 2023, as the answer to these challenges, promising scalability and performance for mission-critical applications.

The server supports workloads like SAP HANA and ERP with up to 16 sockets and 32TB of shared memory, enabling seamless scalability and reduced server sprawl. Powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Sapphire Rapids), it doubles core counts, integrates AI accelerators, and features DDR5 memory with PCIe 5.0 for enhanced performance and bandwidth, ideal for data-intensive applications.

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AWS has now announced the general availability of a new Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) U7inh-32tb.480xlarge instance which runs on the 16-socket HPE Compute Scale-up Server 3200 and is built on the AWS Nitro System.

While that sounds like a positive move for HPE customers, it does raise concerns about the strategic implications.

AWS’s new U7inh instance features 1,920 vCPUs, 32TB of DDR5 memory, 160 Gbps of EBS bandwidth, and 200 Gbps of network bandwidth. AWS says, “You can run your largest in-memory database workloads like SAP HANA or seamlessly migrate workloads running on HPE hardware to AWS.”

As The Register notes, however, AWS’s announcement of the new offering mentions "customers that currently run on-premises with HPE servers have also asked how we can help them migrate to AWS to take advantage of cloud benefits while continuing to use HPE hardware."

By partnering with AWS, HPE potentially opens the door for the cloud giant to gain access to customers running critical workloads on-premises who may be considering cloud migration.

This partnership could inadvertently help AWS capture more enterprise leads, potentially eroding HPE’s on-premises market share. The timing is particularly striking, as AWS has acknowledged a growing trend of customers revisiting on-prem solutions.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.