Latest / Technology Now / AI, Cloud, and What’s Next: Key Takeaways from HPE Discover 2026 | Antonio Neri
Transcript
- MICHAEL BIRD welcome to Las Vegas, Sam. SAM JARRELL Welcome to Las Vegas? Michael, Welcome to the US! MICHAEL BIRD Sam, it's so lovely see you in person again. SAM JARRELL Thank you, Michael, and very much the same to you. It's always nice to be in the same place when we record. MICHAEL BIRD I agree. And if our listeners would like to see the place themselves, they should check us out wherever they watch their podcasts, 'cause this episode is also being released as a video. SAM JARRELL And trust us, you absolutely do not wanna miss out on what we have got planned. So Michael, shall we get on with it? MICHAEL BIRD For sure. I’m Michael Bird SAM JARRELL I'm Sam Jarrell I'm Sam Jarrell, and welcome to Technology Now from HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026. THEME MUSIC (added in edit) MICHAEL BIRD We are back for HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026. SAM JARRELL We absolutely are, and for anyone who hasn't come across it before, Discover Las Vegas is HPE's flagship annual event where we explore the changing world of technology and look to the future to see how we are gonna be dealing with not just the problems of today, but prepping for the potential challenges of tomorrow. MICHAEL BIRD Sam, I couldn't have explained it any better myself. And for this episode, we are joined by HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri to talk about the trends within the industry, how HPE is responding to them, and what businesses and organizations should be thinking as we move through this AI-fueled SAM JARRELL Exactly. And as we're in Vegas, I believe you wanted to make your chat with Antonio a little bit more interesting, right? MICHAEL BIRD Yeah. So a little bit more interesting, right? Yeah. So earlier today, I invited Antonio to join me on a gondola, true story, uh, to chat all things tech, all things HPE, and all things HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026 MICHAEL BIRD Antonio, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of Technology NOW. Um, you'll notice that we're sat sat on a gondola. ANTONIO NERI doing this, uh, while we're moving on water- ... which is, uh, unique. MICHAEL BIRD It's a first for me. I don't know if it's a first for you. I've been in gondolas before, yes. Have you? Oh, okay, okay. Well, we are, uh, we are, we're in Las Vegas. We're at The Venetian for HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026. And I wonder if you could start by talking me through just some of the big announcements, ANTONIO NERI Yeah. Well, first of all, it's great to be here with you and, uh, be able to share the story with our audience. It, it, this Discover was unique in, in the sense that it got us at the right time because of the closing of the Juniper transaction, and most importantly, because we are seeing tremendous growth, and that growth is fueled by the demand across networking, cloud, and AI. So what we covered here at the HPE Discover was the intersection of the three, and we spent quite a bit of time in the networking area because we talk about networking being the core foundation to enable this AI era, which ultimately will deliver the agentic enterprise. So we talked about, you know, announcements across scale up, scale out, and scale across networking. Amazing solutions with our, QFX Fabric, both for AI and scale and, um, as well as training and inferencing. And then on the agentic enterprise, we brought, the next generation of solutions as a part of our AI factory, which is our, uh, private cloud AI portfolio. So a lot to talk about it. Yeah. But also we teased the future with the intersection between HPC and quantum MICHAEL BIRD So lots and lots of big announcements for this year's event. ANTONIO NERI Yeah. absolutely. And we did it together with our partner ecosystem, MICHAEL BIRD I guess, like, what I'd love to understand is how AI is impacting the way that our organizations are now just starting to in-- like build the infrastructure for their IT estates, like, in terms of, like, how they're architecting it. ANTONIO NERI Well, remember, we have to talk about customer segments, right? So in the neo cloud service provider model builder place, uh, you can see that, um, the amount of CapEx being, invested is enormous, right? Uh, I think it has been more than 150 gigawatts of power being announced. And when you think about that, when it's all built, it will be, you know, 50 million GPUs very easily. and that will basically train these frontier models. We're all used to it. Uh, and those frontiers model will change the world forever. That's why we talk about powering the, industrial revolution. On the other hand, you have enterprises accelerating adoption, and the way we know that is because the amount of inference is growing very, very rapidly. But ultimately, it's about becoming an agentic enterprise. What that means, means using AI to change the way you work. So AI will be embedded in everything we do, in your workflows, in your functions, and, the reality is that the workforce now is not gonna be just employees. It will be agents, and those agents have a cost, but it will have a knowledge that we haven't imagined before. So we have to manage both an extended workforce with agentic AI, and also, we have to manage cost and compliance and security, and that's needs to be wrapped with the right,uh, governance. MICHAEL BIRD have you seen actually, buying habits have changed? ANTONIO NERI Yeah. I mean, we see it ourself, right? So when we think about our company, we already have 1,200 use cases- using agentic AI, of which 250 are already in production. the demand is growing every day because the organization understood that this has the power to change the way you work. So they are not worried anymore about, "Is it gonna replace my, my, my job?" It's more about how to use AI to my own benefit and for the benefit of the company. And we see the results of that. I'll give you a great example. When I do my operational reviews every week, what used to take three, four days in finance to prepare for that review, now is a push of a button. And actually, I get better articulation of the data, better visualization, and honestly, more transparency. MICHAEL BIRD in your keynote, and a- as you mentioned, you, you discussed the rise of agentic enterprise. What are the most important enablers for enterprises to become agentic? ANTONIO NERI first of all, you have to have a robust foundation, right? So it's like building a house. If you don't have the right foundation, everything else just crumble. And we believe that foundation is networking because you have to connect all your applications, all your data, all your models in a secure, governed way. And so networking is actually the core foundation, but also can be the bottleneck because these models are expensive. And so if you don't maximize the utilization of the model and the GPUs, you're actually wasting resources. So that's number one. Number two, obviously you have to have the right governance and the right scale and the right data. And that takes a lot of work, but we brought it inside the AI factory out of the box, so you don't have to put all the stuff together. And that's why Private Cloud AI now is the recipe for enterprises to adopt AI and to become an agentic enterprise. Then you need to have choice and flexibility. That's why our AI Unleashed program brings more than 60 partners into our ecosystem, and that allows them to pick the right model and the right partners for whatever they are doing. Yeah. And so expertise matter, but ultimately trust matters the most, and we believe HPE can be that trusted partner. MICHAEL BIRD can you just talk through the challenges that customers face when they're thinking about scaling up, scaling out, and scaling across AI workloads, AI infrastructure? ANTONIO NERI I think you you need to have a clear vision what they're trying to accomplish. of use case is very important. The return on invested capital has to be understood and validated before you jump into it. And so that's why our AI factory for enterprise allows you to start small and then scale out in many ways as you grow, as you learn, 'cause one success brings the next success. So this mentality of fail fast and improve is very important because you're not gonna succeed everywhere. You're gonna fail along the way, don't give up because if you give up too early, you're gonna be left behind MICHAEL BIRD And, and where do AI factories fit into this? ANTONIO NERI Well, that's the core enabler by which we enable you to adopt AI technology, because everything from the infrastructure all the way to the virtualization layer to the application layer comes tightly coupled inside our GreenLake cloud, and you decide where to put that infrastructure. We understand from customers, and I spend more than 50% of my time with customers, that they want to have more control around AI, and in particular around their data, than just starting in the public cloud. They can do some experimentation in the public cloud, but when it comes down to really giving context, using their data to some of these models, they're, they want to do it under their control. MICHAEL BIRD when most of us, most of you, you know, picture AI, you sort of think AI's in a big data center. You know, it's like these huge data centers processing all this data. But actually, um, AI at the edge is, is becoming more prevalent. I mean, Why is that happening, and can you sort of give some, maybe some examples of where AI is being extended to ANTONIO NERI when you start, when you deploy the models, you basically, what you're doing is inferencing these models with the data you're generating. And much of that data is created at the edge. Remember, nine years ago, we talk about much of the data is generated at the edge. We talk about the concept of edge computing. Now we're talking about bringing that AI, which is the inferencing to the data, where this model had been given context. It's more logical, it's more cost-effective, it's for sure more secure because you don't have to move data back and forth. And so that's why we see the edge as the next frontier, where you actually enable people who have to make decisions real time. Think about factory floors with robotics. You cannot experience that latency in the models. Think about, hospitals where decisions needs to be put in the hand of the doctors using AI models with MRI machines and other type of, uh, machinery to provide better care, And look, there is a lot of robotics, uh, surgery taking place these days. Experiences at the edge in the hospitalities, right? So a lot of data is generated, but, you know, instant gratification. So that's why a lot of the inferencing will be done in distributed environments.. But fundamentally, it's a hybrid model where both training and inference will live, uh, coexist in centralized environment and in a distributed environment at the edge. MICHAEL BIRD I mean, that, that concept of latency is really interesting, 'cause I suppose there's a connectivity conversation there as well. ANTONIO NERI That's right, and that's why the networking is the core fabric by which we enable the deployment of AI. MICHAEL BIRD Yeah. So, when we last met at Davos, I think one of the big topics was around sovereignty. Uh, and are you seeing that, I mean, has that changed? are you having more conversations around sovereignty? ANTONIO NERI Absolutely. And at HPE Discover, we announced a number of sovereign solutions that the sovereign, um, AI clouds can be deployed faster. Certifications, you know, regulations that are built inside this GreenLake cloud allows you to air-gapped, with a it's an air-gapped or not air-gapped, with a peace of mind that you are in compliance with those regulations. Which is a big effort, because to do that yourself takes so much work and so much effort. so we build it at the core inside the fabric of the solution itself. But I have to say, there is 10 to 12 customers around the globe, countries, that have the capabilities to deploy this at scale, and the conversations are accelerating, and the build-out of data center is also accelerating. MICHAEL BIRD Yeah. And, and I think, like, sovereignty can sometimes mean different things to different people. Yeah. When, when you speak to customers, like what do they mean by sovereignty? ANTONIO NERI having, everything under their… Because including the impact to their culture, to their identity. You know? um, countries can lose their identity very quickly by using a model that was trained somewhere else other than their country. While that you can live with that, the fact that you are now giving data and context, to that model, is an opportunity to los- to lose that identity. So, there is a geopolitical factor- Yeah ... involved here. And so people realize this is, this is a big change, and they want to have under their control. I remember w- when we went and, um, spoke to the MICHAEL BIRD I remember the team at the Isambard AI supercomputer in Bristol, them saying, like, some of the, some of the things that they're working on is, non-English languages. You know, like almost creating, um, large language models but with, languages other than English. 'Cause I, I guess to your point, actually, if everything's trained in English, then- That's right ... then- That's exactly right. Yeah. ANTONIO NERI And so look, you know, I, I don't know, I don't remember now how many languages are around the world, cause the languages can lose their identity- Yeah ... if everything MICHAEL BIRD It’s monolithic ANTONIO NERI right? Yeah. So I, I think they want to see themselves reflected in through this transition and maintain their, their cultural affinity that is core to what they, who MICHAEL BIRD . Um, what are sort of industry trends do you expect to see over the next six months or so ANTONIO NERI I don't think it's about the next six months, but by the end of the decade, right, we're gonna see the reason in moving to real intelligence. Uh, we can see that. then obviously the manufacturing become more and more automated with robotics. when you give a specific purpose to these robots, they can do tasks extremely well. And so look, it's gonna change the way we live and work, right? And it's up to you to decide how much you want, how much you don't want. Mm. Uh, but I think history shows us that you don't adopt some of these technologies, you're gonna be left behind, and the concept of inclusion and equality is gonna be very important. POST INTERVIEW DISCUSSION MICHAEL BIRD SAM JARRELL Wow, I cannot believe you got Antonio into a gondola. Into a gondola. That was crazy. And was the, was the gondolier actually Italian? MICHAEL BIRD I don't know, but they did chat Italian for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't know, I don't know what they were talking about. Maybe how good the interview was, something like that. I think that the conversation we had around, uh, sovereign and sovereign AI, I think, was quite interesting. SAM JARRELL Yeah, I feel like that's becoming increasingly an issue, especially because, you know, with the rise of AI, different governments and organizations kind of have to take a zero-trust approach to every company, every organization that they end up working with, and you don't want your models to necessarily always be used by the exact same other MICHAEL BIRD right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the agentic enterprise as well. we talked actually at quite a length about that, and the fact this is a big trend that's coming and we're talking about it a lot at Discover. Again, really, really fascinating. SAM JARRELL Yeah. I loved hearing a little bit more from Antonio about, like, how agentic AI plays into networking as well. Yeah. I know for his keynote, it's titled, uh, AI Architected: It Starts With Your Network. And I think when people think about AI, they often think of the model first- Yeah ... rather than the network. But for us, the network is the foundation of everything. MICHAEL BIRD Yeah, exactly. The Last Thought MICHAEL BIRD Now, Sam, we talk a lot on this podcast about AI. SAM JARRELL We absolutely do. It's one of our favorite topics, for sure. And how come? MICHAEL BIRD how come? Well, I wanted to end the chat with Antonio on a positive note, but before we get to that, can I ask you a question? Sure. The question is, what excites you the most about how AI could be used in the future? SAM JARRELL Um, I think what excites me most is the concept of how it can be used to battle modern slavery. Oh. HPE actually has quite a few initiatives related to that. Mm. And we are actually using AI to help combat modern slavery. Yeah. So to me, the promise of that freer world is very compelling. What about you? MICHAEL BIRD Sam, I feel like I sort of have to out-noble you with your answer. So, um, something around medicine, how AI could be used to cure cancers or solve incurable diseases by using drug discovery, things like that. I, I ... That's the thing that I'm really excited to… SAM JARRELL for good, right? MICHAEL BIRD Right SAM JARRELL That’s the point of it all. MICHAEL BIRD Exactly, exactly. And, um, I asked Antonio earlier a similar question. You know, what excited him most about how AI could be used in the future. So let's take a listen to his answer ANTONIO NERI I think we are scratching the surface. I mean, the potential this technology has is enormous. But I will say also comes with great responsibility and, you know, for me, ethics, are a key component. And I believe, you know, over the next six months the private and public sector have to come together much more tighter than ever before. So there is a lot of anxiety being built around, but that anxiety can be managed by the two sides coming together and be able to solve these problems before they happen. So to me, that's an exciting opportunity because we can advance society to levels we haven't seen before. and transparency is key because the one thing we need to address is trust. If trust is not built, it doesn't matter. You know, everything will fall apart very, very quickly. And so for me, it's how we build trust, not just within the business community, but within the consumer, the society- right now we are kind of in a transition phase, a little like the dating phase. Uh, but there is a lot of work to be done MICHAEL BIRD Antonio, thank you so much for your time. I hope you enjoyed the setting. ANTONIO NERI Yeah, it's amazing. and, uh, want to thank crew and the, the driver here. Grazie mille. Grazie mille. So we can have fun. MICHAEL BIRD Thank you. Thank you ANTONIO NERI All right. Thank you. SAM JARRELL Okay that brings us to the end of Technology Now for this week. Thank you to our guest, Antonio Neri And of course, to our listeners. Thank you so much for joining us. MICHAEL BIRD If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please do let us know – rate and review us wherever you listen to episodes and if you want to get in contact with us, send us an email to technology now AT hpe.com. subject line? SAM JARRELL Gondola ride… MICHAEL BIRD subject line gondola ride. And don't forget to subscribe so you can listen first every week. Technology Now is hosted by Sam Jarrell and myself, Michael Bird This episode was produced by Harry Lampert and Eva Higginbotham with production support from Alysha Kempson-Taylor, Beckie Bird, Alissa Mitry, and Jenessa Ayache. Our video editor was Alex van Duyn and our theme music was composed by Greg Hooper. SAM JARRELL Our camera team were Branson Tarr, Karl Norberg, Gilber Rios, Sam Wynn and Libby Cook Our social editorial team is Rebecca Wissinger, Judy-Anne Goldman and Jacqueline Green and our social media designers are Alejandra Garcia, and Ambar Maldonado. MICHAEL BIRD Technology Now is a Fresh Air Production for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and we’ll see you at the same time, the same place- (and) we’ll see you next week. Cheers! SAM JARRELL Here??? MICHAEL BIRD Well, not here. It’s a bit too hot. On the feed, next week. Cheers SAM JARRELL Bye y’all.