HPE Rewrites Its Hybrid Cloud Playbook at Discover 2026: What VMware Customers Need to Know

Hewlett Packard Enterprise used its annual Las Vegas event to announce a sweeping set of software, cloud, networking, and AI infrastructure updates aimed at enterprises running AI agents and hybrid IT in production. The announcements came during HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026, held June 15 to 18 at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center.

The headline products span four areas: HPE Morpheus Software version 9, GreenLake Intelligence, expanded private cloud options, and tighter networking integration through Juniper. Taken together, they tell a clear story: HPE wants to be the single control plane for enterprises that are tired of juggling multiple clouds, paying rising VMware licensing bills, and stitching together AI infrastructure with duct tape.

What Morpheus 9 Actually Delivers

HPE Morpheus 9 is positioned as the most advanced platform for operating both modern and traditional infrastructure, including AI workloads.

The biggest addition is Morpheus Central, a federated multi-site management layer delivered as a GreenLake cloud service, with an air-gapped on-premises option. It provides a single operational view across multiple Morpheus deployments spanning data centers, regions, and cloud providers.

The full list of new capabilities is substantial:

• Morpheus Orchestration Copilot for AI-assisted provisioning and workflow automation
• Morpheus Central for centralized management across all deployments
• Generally available software-defined networking based on Juniper technology, bringing policy, security, and micro-segmentation into the same platform
• Juniper Apstra integration for intent-based network automation
• Stretched-cluster support for metro resiliency and cross-site availability
• HPE Zerto-based migration tools aimed squarely at VMware displacement

The VMware Play Is Explicit and Aggressive

HPE is not being subtle about who it is targeting. Morpheus VM Essentials now claims over 2,000 customers and more than a million installed cores, on the back of a claimed 90 percent cost reduction through socket-based pricing. A first-year-free migration program makes HPE one of the most aggressive VMware alternatives in the market right now.

For IT teams still working through what Broadcom's VMware pricing changes mean for their budgets, this is worth a close look. HPE is positioning Morpheus not as a partial replacement but as a full lifecycle platform: provision VMs and containers, automate workflows, manage networking, and handle disaster recovery through Veeam and Zerto integrations, all from one place.

GreenLake Gets an AI Operations Brain

A key element of the announcements is the expansion of GreenLake Intelligence, HPE's agentic AI framework for hybrid cloud and AI operations. New capabilities include a centralized agent registry, orchestration services, governance controls, and the HPE OpsRamp Operations Copilot, which adds observability for AI agents, large language models, and AI infrastructure.

HPE is also partnering with ServiceNow to integrate GreenLake Intelligence with ServiceNow's autonomous AI workforce platform, creating a unified framework spanning infrastructure observability through automated service delivery. That integration will roll out across 2026 and 2027, so it is not a day-one capability, but the direction is clear: HPE wants IT operations teams to move from reactive ticket management to automated, agent-driven remediation.

HPE OpsRamp Operations Copilot within GreenLake Intelligence is available now. The broader GreenLake Intelligence and ServiceNow integrations follow across 2026 and 2027.

Private Cloud Gets Air-Gapped and Regulation-Ready

HPE Private Cloud PC3000 now supports air-gapped deployment across edge and core environments. HPE Private Cloud PC7000 adds infrastructure-as-code with Terraform support, automated private cloud operations, and VMware vSphere 9 validation. The air-gapped PC7000 also includes readiness for Department of Defense Impact Level 4 certification.

This matters well beyond defense contractors. Air-gapped, sovereign-capable private cloud is increasingly what regulated industries, including financial services, healthcare, and energy, are demanding as data residency laws tighten across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. HPE is making a direct play for that segment.

HPE also announced plans to deepen collaboration with Citrix, including future support for Citrix Desktop-as-a-Service on GreenLake and integration with Morpheus virtualization platforms.

Networking Folded Into the Full Stack

HPE Juniper Networking is now part of HPE AI Data Center Solutions, completing the integration of the Juniper acquisition into HPE's portfolio. HPE's blueprint centers on three layers: self-driving networks, agentic infrastructure, and intelligent hybrid operations, all under the GreenLake umbrella and powered by a single Marvis AI engine. That means network troubleshooting, policy enforcement, and micro-segmentation are no longer separate conversations from compute and storage management, at least within the HPE stack.

What This Means for Your IT Team

A few concrete takeaways for IT and infrastructure leaders:

If you are a VMware customer reviewing costs, Morpheus 9 is now a credible, production-tested option. Over 2,000 customers and a million installed cores is not a pilot project. Evaluate the migration tooling and the first-year-free offer before your next Broadcom renewal conversation.

If you run hybrid or multi-site infrastructure, Morpheus Central's single-pane-of-glass management across regions and cloud providers addresses a real operational pain point. The air-gapped on-premises option means organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements can still use it.

If you are building AI infrastructure, note the Vultr partnership. Vultr, described as the world's largest privately held hyperscaler, has selected HPE and NVIDIA for large-scale AI datacenter deployments, specifically the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 by HPE connected with NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. HPE is winning enterprise-scale AI infrastructure deals, and that reference architecture matters if you are planning a similar build.

Watch the ServiceNow integration timeline. The combination of GreenLake Intelligence and ServiceNow's platform could meaningfully reduce manual IT operations work, but the rollout runs through 2026 and 2027. Plan for it now, not at the last minute.

On timing: The latest HPE Morpheus Software updates are rolling out across Q2 and Q3 2026, and HPE CloudOps Software for cloud service providers is available now. If any of this touches your procurement cycle, the window to engage is open.

The broader signal from Discover 2026 is that HPE is no longer content to be a hardware company with cloud services bolted on. GreenLake, Morpheus, and Juniper are being woven into a single operational fabric. Whether that fabric fits your environment depends on your existing stack, but the competitive pressure it puts on VMware, Microsoft Azure Arc, and Nutanix is real and worth tracking.

How 247techify can help

At 247techify, we help businesses evaluate and implement hybrid cloud and infrastructure management platforms, including decisions around VMware alternatives, private cloud deployments, and IT operations tooling. If HPE GreenLake, Morpheus 9, or the broader shift in hybrid infrastructure is relevant to your plans, we would be glad to talk it through. Reach out to us at https://www.247techify.com/ and let us help you make the right call for your environment.