Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is planning to provide $4 billion in funding over the next four years for the development of intelligent edge technologies, an emerging category that will allow for data to be gathered and analyzed right at its source apart from some sort of centralized nodes.
HPE says the investment will be used to fund research and development efforts across a range of domains such as security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and edge computing. As part of that initiative, the company plans to grow its advisory and professional services for edge computing.
Antonio Neri, president and chief executive officer of HPE, announced the plan at the company's Discover conference in Las Vegas. He said:
Data is the new intellectual property, and companies that can distill intelligence from their data —whether in a smart hospital or an autonomous car—will be the ones to lead. HPE has been at the forefront of developing technologies and services for the intelligent edge, and with this investment, we are accelerating our ability to drive this growing category for the future.
The next evolution in enterprise technology will be in edge-to-cloud architecture. Enterprises will require millions of distributed clouds that enable real-time insights and personalized experiences exactly where the action is happening.
Already, HPE has been growing its stake in edge computing with its subsidiary Aruba, which provides wireless LAN, campus switching, security, location-based services, edge computing, and analytics and assurance services. HPE's Pointnext services are also used by Gatwick Airport in England, Texmark, and Streamr to turn their data into intelligence right at the outposts of a network.
The company will also advance the development of memory-driven computing to boost localized computing at the edge of a network. Additionally, it will pursue its investment in open standards and open source technologies.
