With cloud computing increasingly becoming a major choice among businesses, tech giant HP has decided to reinforce its cloud services which it is now offering to local firms.

A small press briefing was conducted recently by HP Philippines to announce two new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings: HP Operations Orchestration and HP Cloud Assure. The two services had been launched earlier in the US but it was only this year that HP’s local office introduced them here.

The company flew in Damien Wong, general manager for software and solutions at HP Southeast Asia, who said that cloud computing is a great technology model but is also being threatened by various challenges such as security and availability.

Wong said a research commissioned by HP which showed that more than 90 percent of senior business decision-makers believe business cycles will continue to be unpredictable in the next few years. As a result, he said, 75 percent of the surveyed chief information officers (CIOs) acknowledged the need to invest in more flexible technology.

Wong also cited a quote from Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC, who said that “adoption is limited by uncertainties surrounding risks and rewards. Customers want assurance and a safe path to cloud adoption that will address potential risks of security, performance and availability, while providing clear return on investment.”

HP said the “elastic” nature of cloud computing is appealing because computing resources can expand or contract based on demand. Businesses that see degradation in application performance may try to solve the problem by purchasing more cloud computing resources, it said.

However, the US-based firm said buying more services may not result in the expected performance gains and could lead to unpredictable costs.

HP’s cloud offerings can provide cloud consumers the assurance that they are optimizing cloud costs and achieving the predictability necessary to budget appropriately, according to Wong.

HP Cloud Assure, the company said, solution enables cloud consumers to “right size” their various compute footprints, ensuring all service levels are met at the most optimized and predictable cost.