HP CEO launches public cloud

Also plans an app store with an "open marketplace"

HP CEO Leo Apotheker declared that the company is to launch a public cloud offering, in his keynote speech at the HP Summit in San Francisco last night.

This will see the company compete with the likes of Amazon and allow existing customers to develop a hybrid architecture. HP will continue to offer private cloud services.

Apotheker said: "We have already launched infrastructure as a service for our enterprise customers [available in the private cloud] and plan to launch a public cloud offering in the near future. We also plan to move into higher-value services that offer greater strategic value."

He also said that HP would launch an open platform aimed at providing developers with all the tools they need to build, test and deploy services. In addition, the company intends to cash in on the app market with the development of this ecosystem.

"We will build an open marketplace that integrates developer services, a consumer app store and an enterprise application and services catalogue."

In a speech in which the cloud featured heavily, Apotheker also talked specifically of HP's plans for its current private cloud offering.

"Our strategy is to optimise the traditional technology stack that our customers depend on. [We will] build and manage these next-generation, cloud-based architectures and enable customer migration to hybrid models."