Credit: HPE
Melbourne-based IT service provider Champions of Change has rolled out Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Greenlake to global optometrist brand Specsavers.
The partner deployed the hybrid cloud as-a-service solution in order to help Specsavers manage the increased amount of customer data generated by its new 3D diagnostic system.
The deployment was designed to help the brand expand its cloud storage capacity but still keep a number of its systems on-premise, scaling up or down based on consumption.
“We’re undergoing a significant transformation in the way our customers interact with us,” said Julian McAll, Specsavers Asia Pacific head of technical services, architecture and solution design.
“In turn, IT has to transform to deliver the flexibility, security, and performance that keeps customers coming back.”
So far Specsavers has rolled out the platform to 385 retail stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Previously Specsavers had an aging, on-premises infrastructure that was “becoming an obstacle” to its digitisation efforts, according to Champions of Change.
However, while it needed to move beyond “traditional IT”, it couldn’t migrate all its workloads immediately to the public cloud, the service provider said.
As such, Champions of Change deployed an operating expenditure model, which it claimed would allow Specsavers to keep their legacy and stacks while deciding what to move into the cloud and what to keep on-prem.
“Instead of being regular partners that sell ‘one-deal’ solutions, offers like HPE GreenLake allow us to have ongoing conversations with the clients we work with and play important roles in their digital transformation journey,” Champions of Change CEO Xara Tran said. “We’re not just average channel resellers, but we’ve become fully integrated technology experts.”
The provider added that the deployment “breaks the cycle of infrastructure procurement, ownership, and upgrade” and allows Specsavers to avoid committing capital for another five-year spend.
The transition marks another effort by HPE to transition partners and customers entirely onto an operating expenditure model, having launched the consumption-based infrastructure service for Greenlake in 2018.
Recently HPE unveiled its joint Greenlake hybrid cloud offering with Nutanix , which is being distributed by Arrow ECS locally.
In its latest FY20 updates to its Partner Ready Program, the vendor unveiled a new suite of programs and tools to help partners close deals faster, plus the option for differentiated pricing via deal registration.
