HP fires up Amazon style cloud

Cloud service launches in beta.

HP has launched its much anticipated HP Cloud Services platform, which will initially serve up on-demand compute instances and storage. 

The computing giant’s Cloud Services was built with its own hardware and software and was integrated with the RackSpace-founded open source cloud project, OpenStack, which it joined in July. 

HP boss Leo Apotheker in March flagged the company’s plan to launch infrastructure and platform as-a-service products in the second half of the year.

Much like Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon Web Services, HP will offer on-demand scalable machine instances, as well as object storage space for files and back-up.

The company has invited developers under its beta program to test and relay their experiences, but it gave away few details about its cloud's inner workings..   

A few details about Cloud Services were leaked in May, and HP's Cloud Services Twitter account said it intended to share more details, such as how its service features will work with OpenStack, in the coming months.  

Patrick Harr, HP’s VP of Cloud Services, had previously said it would primarily target developers and aim to take on Amazon Web Services, according to GigaOm. 

HP’s beta launch follows Dell’s first foray into the cloud with VMware behind that vendor's power public, private and hybrid clouds.

Dell was putting its acquisition of security vendor SecureWorks, along with Trend Micro, to work in its cloud offerings.

Dell’s VMware deal was just the beginning of a three-pronged attack on the cloud, with plans in place to launch similar services on Microsoft Azure and OpenStack, according to GigaOm.