HPE Discover 2025: Key Announcements And Insights For Enterprise IT Leaders

From June 23 to June 25, HPE hosted its annual Discover event in Las Vegas, showcasing innovations in AI and hybrid cloud. As Forrester analysts, we attended the event and explored how HPE is positioning itself as a leader in what it calls the “agentic AI” revolution — a bold step toward autonomous IT infrastructure.

In this blog, we’ll break down the key announcements and explain what they mean for enterprises. If you’re a CIO, it’s time to look beyond the buzzwords and ask yourself: How will these developments shape or disrupt my IT roadmap?

1. GreenLake Intelligence: AI Moves From The Periphery To The Core

HPE unveiled GreenLake Intelligence, a suite of AI agents designed to autonomously manage computing, storage, and networking across hybrid cloud environments. CEO Antonio Neri outlined a vision where AI agents seamlessly handle day-zero through day-N operations, all while maintaining governance across the IT stack.

Forrester’s take: HPE GreenLake continues to evolve. Initially introduced in 2018 as a way to enable “as-a-service” consumption for all HPE products, GreenLake has grown into a comprehensive portal akin to AWS’s console. It now serves as a central hub for managing, engaging, and reporting on HPE’s portfolio within enterprise data centers. GreenLake’s next chapter includes the integration of Zerto, OpsRamp, and Morpheus into CloudOps Software, providing the operational glue to execute predefined tasks and surface observability data. While calling it a “cloud” remains somewhat ambiguous, this architecture has the potential to deliver intelligent, self-operating infrastructure — a significant step forward for hybrid cloud management.

2. NVIDIA-Powered AI Factory: Accelerating Enterprise AI Adoption

HPE expanded its AI Factory initiative through a partnership with NVIDIA. This turnkey infrastructure solution integrates compute, storage, networking, management software, and services into a seamless stack, enabling enterprises to accelerate AI adoption.

Forrester’s take: HPE’s embrace of the AI Factory concept aligns with a trend NVIDIA pioneered. While the term remains loosely defined, HPE’s execution delivers robust enterprise integration, security, and performance. To meet customer expectations, HPE must make these solutions widely available and expand partnerships beyond infrastructure. HPE competitors already do so. Enterprise buyers expect clearer guidance for navigating high-performance AI rollouts. With increasing interest in AI, HPE is well positioned to lead the charge — but only if it delivers on these demands.

3. Renewed Commitment To Private Cloud

HPE is doubling down on private cloud solutions, including VM Essentials (VME), a VMware alternative. By aligning VME with Morpheus and OpsRamp, HPE aims to simplify private cloud adoption for enterprises.

Forrester’s take: VMware customers exploring alternatives expect HPE to deliver strong solutions that address their challenges. While VM Essentials provides a reasonable entry-level option, organizations with complex workloads or hybrid ambitions will outgrow it unless HPE expands its ecosystem and roadmap integration. HPE must mature its private cloud blueprints, articulate its value proposition for CIOs, and provide clear guidance on how private cloud fits into enterprise IT strategies. Without these improvements, adoption could stall.

4. Networking And Security Innovation: Agentic Mesh Technology

HPE emphasized AI-driven networking as part of its broader agentic AI strategy. It showcased HPE Aruba Networking Central, a solution designed to tackle complex challenges such as spanning tree incidents and device onboarding — all while aligning with Zero Trust principles.

Forrester’s take: The lack of major networking announcements compared to last year’s HPE Aruba updates was noticeable. This shift may reflect a strategic decision to conserve resources ahead of its deal closure with Juniper. While HPE focused on step increments, its competitors rolled out new features and products, gaining market momentum. HPE’s vision for the eventual “death of the firewall” was intriguing but lacked clarity on how it plans to transition into a network security fabric vendor. Enterprises need greater transparency and a detailed roadmap for these ambitious claims to resonate. HPE closed its acquisition on July 2 — expect our take on this shortly.

5. Storage Advances: Alletra MP X10000 Enhancements

HPE revealed updates to the Alletra Storage MP X10000 system, including plans to support Model Context Protocol (MCP) in late 2025. These upgrades promise AI-optimized performance and deeper ecosystem integration for enterprise storage.

Forrester’s take: The addition of in-line data classification and vectorization to Alletra MP X10000 reflects a growing trend: converging data services into the storage layer to accelerate generative AI use cases such as retrieval-augmented generation. While embedding an MCP server into the platform is an exciting roadmap item, its value remains unproven. Vendors such as NetApp and IBM are also pushing similar innovations, which positions HPE to stay competitive — but execution will determine whether these enhancements truly deliver value for enterprise AI adoption.

6. Strategic Partnerships And Ecosystem Expansion

HPE announced deeper partnerships with Veeam and Commvault to strengthen data protection across its private cloud offerings. Veeam will now support backups for HPE’s VM Essentials, while Commvault will offer HPE’s Zerto Software to its customers.

Forrester’s take: The Veeam partnership addresses a critical need for data resilience among enterprises transitioning away from VMware. With HPE integrating Zerto, Morpheus, and OpsRamp into its CloudOps Software portfolio, many of VMware’s lifecycle management features are now covered. Looking ahead, we expect more backup vendors to support HPE’s VM Essentials and additional partnerships to emerge, filling gaps in lifecycle management and operational tools for VMware customers exploring alternatives.

7. Sustainability Recognition

HPE honored Atea with its inaugural Sustainability Partner of the Year award, underscoring its commitment to environmental responsibility.

Forrester’s take: Sustainability may not grab headlines like AI, but it’s becoming a critical focus for enterprises due to regulations such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the rising energy demands of AI workloads. HPE has publicized its sustainability efforts extensively, but clearer communication about how it enables CSRD compliance will resonate more with global and EU enterprises seeking immediate guidance.

Final Thoughts

HPE Discover 2025 showcased a unified vision for the future of enterprise IT, centered around agentic AI. From infrastructure management to networking and storage, HPE demonstrated its commitment to delivering autonomous capabilities across the IT stack. AI isn’t just transforming how organizations manage infrastructure — it’s redefining the speed at which they adapt to autonomous capabilities.

HPE’s announcements lay out a compelling roadmap, but the true test lies in execution. Discover 2026 will reveal whether agentic AI delivers on its promise to revolutionize IT operations — or remains just another buzzword.