HP to Launch Enterprise Cloud Service

The company will as well start offering computing systems for internal use that will interoperate with the cloud offering, as then as a set of workshops to aid organizations in developing cloud strategies, said Bill Veghte, HP executive vice president overseeing software and solutions.

The enterprise experience

"HP has the enterprise experience, breadth of portfolio and global service delivery organization to lead our customers through this transformation" to cloud computing, said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, HP Enterprise Business, in a statement.

The service, called HP Enterprise Cloud Services-Compute, will offer organizations computational services from two HP data centers, one located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other in Wynyard, U.K. Clients are free to choose their own specific cloud platform, be it Windows Azure or a virtual machine-based program.

This announcement comes ahead of an HP press conference scheduled in March in which HP CEO Léo Apotheker is expected to unveil the company's new strategy. Analysts predict that Apotheker will shift more corporate focus to enterprise software and cloud computing.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general research breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com