HPE is all in on AI, according to the message coming from CEO Antonio Neri. AI agents are now running alongside end users in enterprise infrastructure, changing how workloads move across networks and what compute and storage must deliver. At HPE Discover 2026 in Las Vegas this week, Neri used the opening keynote to detail the company’s response across its full stack. Key announcements include networking, compute, storage, agentic operations, and cloud management updates.

HPE extended AI connectivity from GPU racks to the inference edge with new QFX switches, the PTX 12,000 routing platform for data center interconnect, the SRX 4700 quantum-safe firewall, and the MX 301 edge router, while Marvis Actions comes to Aruba Central and Aruba CX switching to HPE Mist. On the compute side, Private Cloud AI now scales to 256 GPUs with multi-node inference across three AI Factory tiers, backed by the new ProLiant DL 394 Gen 12 built for agentic workloads. The Alletra MPX 10,000 becomes the Private Cloud AI storage layer, unifying file and object storage on a single architecture with native MCP support and Nvidia Certified Storage validation. Private Cloud AI gains agentic governance controls including zero-code agent registration across any framework and a new three-tier identity model, backed by Nvidia Open Shell for isolated policy-enforced agent runtimes, NeMo Cloud for governed workflow blueprints, and Zerto for clean-state rollback when agents make errors. HPE CloudOps consolidates virtualization, data protection and cloud management into a single hybrid operating layer, with the Unleash AI program now covering more than 60 validated partners.

“Today, we are witnessing one of the largest technology platform shifts in history,” Neri said during the keynote. “Workloads and applications are moving from being driven by end users [to] now being driven by both end users and AI agents.” This shift requires a fundamental rethinking of enterprise architecture, where networks, compute, and storage must be optimized for the dynamic nature of agentic AI workloads.

The network comes first

For HPE, the network is the AI foundation. “Every byte, every token, every decision, all of it crosses the network,” Neri said. Much of his keynote discussion about networking revolved around the expansion and integration of Juniper Networks as part of the broader HPE portfolio. HPE structured its portfolio across four layers: scale-up within a rack, scale-out across GPU clusters, data center interconnect, and edge inference routing. New QFX switches address the first two layers, while the PTX 12,000 handles data center interconnect with 800G routing, the SRX 4700 delivers quantum-safe firewall throughput at 1.44 Tbps in a single rack unit, and the MX 301 brings the MX platform to the inference edge on Juniper’s sixth-generation Trio silicon.

Fundamentally, it’s about speed and what that means in the AI era. Neri put the cost of latency at training scale in plain terms: “Multiply[ing] a small delay across hundreds of thousands of GPUs over weeks of training in your network can mean the difference between training a new model in 90 days or 30 days,” he said. “It is the difference between chasing a breakthrough or making one.” This emphasis on low-latency networking aligns with HPE's history of high-performance computing and its recent acquisition of Juniper, which brings a rich portfolio of routing and switching technologies tailored for hyperscale and enterprise data centers. The integration of Marvis, Juniper's AI-native assistant, into Aruba Central and HPE Mist further simplifies network management by automating troubleshooting and optimising traffic flows for AI workloads.

HPE scales compute for the agentic era

While networking connects systems, those compute systems are still needed and they are being organized and optimized for AI. HPE organizes its compute portfolio into three AI Factory tiers for enterprise, service provider, and sovereign deployments. “AI today is about moving faster from ambition to outcome, accelerating time to token, reducing execution risk, and ensuring your environments are ready to perform from day one,” Neri said. The new ProLiant DL 394 Gen 12 is built for agentic AI and long-context workloads. At the AI Factory at Scale tier, new configurations deliver AI training with one-quarter the GPUs required by the prior Blackwell-generation platform and inference at one-tenth the cost per million tokens, Neri said.

Private Cloud AI configurations now scale to 256 GPUs with multi-node inference. A unified gateway provides a single API for frontier and open-source model access. Shared cache reduces the cost per first token. “Private cloud AI can now serve larger models across multiple systems with multi node inference, so capacity grows with the math,” Neri said. This scalability is critical as enterprises move beyond proof-of-concept AI deployments to production-grade systems that must handle millions of inference requests per day. The ProLiant DL 394 Gen 12 leverages the latest AMD EPYC processors and NVIDIA H200 GPUs, with liquid cooling options to manage thermal density. HPE also introduced new reference architectures for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and fine-tuning, which are popular use cases for agentic workflows.

Storage: Making data ready for AI

Agents are only as capable as the data behind them. On the storage front, the Alletra MPX 10,000 is now the storage layer for Private Cloud AI, unifying file and object storage on a single architecture. It adds real-time metadata enrichment and native MCP support, enabling agents to retrieve data across structured and unstructured sources. HPE cited 7 to 12 times faster time to value compared to custom-built environments. “Your AI agents are only as smart as the data you use to train them,” Neri said. “Traditionally, that data required custom preparation for every use case and months of building the right AI data pipelines, but not anymore.” The Alletra MPX 10,000 integrates with HPE's data fabric and supports NVIDIA Magnum IO to accelerate data movement between storage and GPUs. It also offers inline deduplication and compression to reduce storage costs, which is particularly important for the large datasets used in training and inference.

Toward an agentic enterprise

Running on top of all that networking, compute and storage gear are AI agents. That’s another area that HPE is looking to help. “Agents now reason across data, applications, models, and workflows. They help you make decisions, automate processes, and are increasingly taking action on your behalf,” Neri said. Agents are proliferating across enterprises, often in the hands of developers and small teams outside formal IT oversight, creating governance and scale challenges that traditional IT management was not built to handle. “Agentic AI demands a new set of enterprise requirements,” Neri said.

HPE’s answer is a governed agent layer built into Private Cloud AI. Enterprises can register agents built in any framework, applying security controls on API calls, identity, and encryption with zero code changes required. A three-tier identity model verifies the user, governs the agent, and requires human approval for sensitive actions. This governance is paired with Nvidia Open Shell for isolated policy-enforced agent runtimes, NeMo Cloud for governed workflow blueprints, and Zerto for clean-state rollback when agents make errors. HPE CloudOps further simplifies management by combining virtualization, data protection, and cloud management into a single hybrid operating layer. The Unleash AI partner program now covers more than 60 validated partners, including major ISVs and systems integrators.

Power, research and what comes next

With all the promise of AI and all the infrastructure that goes with it, there is a key constraint that Neri warned about, and that’s power. “Every model, every workload, every agent depends on power, because at its core, an AI factory is doing one thing: turning electrons into tokens,” he said. He noted that the U.S faces a 19 gigawatt power gap by 2028, with data centers projected to account for nearly half of US electricity demand through 2031. “As AI scales, the future will not be defined by compute alone,” Neri said. “It will be defined by how efficiently we can power it, cool it, and connect it.” To address this, HPE is investing in advanced cooling technologies like direct liquid cooling and two-phase immersion cooling, as well as partnerships with utility providers to co-locate data centers near renewable energy sources. The company is also researching novel chip architectures that could reduce power consumption per token, building on its heritage in high-performance computing.

HPE’s vision extends beyond hardware. The company is also working on AI-native security solutions that can detect and respond to threats in real time, as well as tools for model explainability and bias detection. These capabilities are essential as AI agents become more autonomous and take on mission-critical roles in finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Neri’s keynote left no doubt that HPE sees itself as a full-stack AI infrastructure provider, from the network edge to the core data center, with a focus on openness, scalability, and governance. As enterprises accelerate their AI journeys, HPE aims to be the partner that provides the foundation for innovation while managing the complexity and risk inherent in agentic systems.

Source: Network World News