Nokia Software R&D labs go lean and green with HPE GreenLake
HPE GreenLake Cloud Services SVP and GM Keith White talks about how global telecoms giant, Nokia Software, accelerates R&D output, achieves cost efficiency and reduces environmental footprint with HPE GreenLake
- Nokia Software has selected HPE GreenLake to help in reducing their carbon footprint
- Performance has been continually improved while reducing energy requirements, with a smaller data center footprint requiring less electricity, less cooling and less floor space
- With HPE GreenLake, Nokia Software is now able to bring hardware elasticity on-premises at a cost that is on par with public cloud
The momentum that we’re generating with HPE GreenLake is really exciting to see. Building on my commitment to share customer and partner stories, today I’m happy to highlight the strong partnership we have with Nokia Software.
As many of you know, 5G promises to deliver many things, but according to Nokia, above all it must be an enabler to improve lives and create a safer, more sustainable society. The company is setting out to help address climate change and build a more sustainable world for our children and grandchildren. In fact, sustainable ideas underpin the company’s pioneering 5G solutions. Whether it’s using 5G to detect environmental dangers in real-time, improving energy efficiency in industry, reducing power consumption or reusing heat, Nokia is focused on making the world more sustainable.
That’s why Nokia Software has partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to make its data centers not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative. HPE has been a key supplier of IT equipment to Nokia for many years and now with HPE GreenLake, Nokia Software R&D data centers are more efficient than ever before.
Increasing the velocity of R&D
The Nokia Software business unit is a center of innovation and is tasked with accelerating R&D to maintain their position at the forefront of the 5G revolution. To support test and development for its software engineers, Nokia Software runs agile, high-performance R&D data centers called vLabs. Ron Haberman, CTO, Nokia Software says, “we are always looking for ways to make ourselves more efficient and provide better service.”
Jarkko Kytömäki, Nokia Software’s vLab infrastructure manager in Tampere, explains: “Our mission is to provide first-class virtualized, shared, and remotely accessible R&D and testing resources for our global software developers. We want to give them a public cloud user experience with on prem control and cost points.”
The vLab in Tampere, Finland, has recently been upgraded with solutions from HPE GreenLake that enables Nokia Software to increase elasticity in the infrastructure and deliver a private cloud as a service for their R&D functions.
“With HPE GreenLake, we are now able to bring hardware elasticity on-premises at a fraction of the cost of public cloud.”
With HPE GreenLake, we are now able to bring hardware elasticity on-premises at a fraction of the cost of public cloud. If demand from our users increases, I’m confident the HPE GreenLake consumption model can bring the additional resources we need to meet the business demand”, said Kytömäki.
By leveraging HPE GreenLake to operate the vLab in a consumption-based IT model, Nokia Software only pays for the capacity used, creating a very manageable and predictable monthly operating expense. Yet, with HPE GreenLake, the resources are in place to grow as needed without the time and expense associated with new capital investments.
“With HPE GreenLake, we can always add capacity by simply building on the hardware investment we already have available to us,” Kytömäki remarks. “It provides us an easier way to scale and to keep up with our R&D demands.”
Going green with HPE GreenLake
Nokia Software is targeting a carbon-negative data center operation, using renewable energy sources to power their local data center and water from a nearby Finnish lake to cool it.
"Nokia recognizes its responsibility in the fight against climate change and our R&D vLab in Tampere, Finland is an important example of our commitment to taking actions against climate change. Thanks to our work with HPE GreenLake, this lab is not only carbon-neutral but it recovers the heat generated by our servers and IT systems for redistribution into the surrounding city”, said Haberman.
“HPE GreenLake enables us to continually gain performance with fewer energy requirements”
HPE GreenLake also supports Nokia Software R&D’s progressive environmental objectives. “HPE GreenLake enables us to continually gain performance with fewer energy requirements. Storage is a good example in which the same capacity that took up six data center racks in the past, now fits into less than one rack. That smaller footprint means less electricity, less cooling, and of course, less data center floor space.” Kytömäki said.
Driving a circular and low-carbon economy with HPE
HPE is committed to minimizing the environmental footprint of IT. Which is why it is so exciting to partner with Nokia Software to influence positive outcomes such as this.
By 2022, HPE will offer our entire portfolio as a service with a range of subscription, pay-per-use, and consumption-driven technology offerings. Our as-a-service model reduces the environmental impact of IT by cutting the amount of IT equipment needed, as well as the resources required to power and cool equipment. With HPE GreenLake, we are bringing the cloud to you by helping customers right-size and optimize their IT, enabling them to accomplish more while realizing economic and environmental savings.
At a time when global leaders are asking themselves what their organizations can do to guide society toward a more sustainable future, this partnership between Nokia Software and HPE GreenLake is an example of a bold move, providing a great example for industry peers to follow.