HP launches private cloud beta

In a significant bid to carve out a niche in the increasingly competitive market for cloud computing, HP has launched its own cloud services private beta initiative.

The two initial services - HP Cloud Compute and HP Cloud Object Storage - will offer computing and storage resources from HP's own data centres.

They will be available for a limited number of users through public, private and hybrid cloud platforms.

In the initial beta period, users do not have to pay for both services. However, customers will be charged on a pay-as-you-go basis once the services reach full production stage.

Cloud Compute enables users to upload virtual machines to HP facilities, where they can be run on an as-needed basis.

And the storage service is meant for backing up data, serving static content over the web, and for storing large data sets either for private or public use.

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