Schneider Electric and HPE are betting that factory owners would rather pay a monthly bill for cloud-backed automation than approve one massive capital project every decade. Their new joint offering bundles Schneider’s EcoStruxure Automation Expert software with HPE’s SimpliVity hybrid cloud infrastructure, packaged as a managed service for plants still running on aging control systems.
The pitch addresses a real headache. Factories, utilities, and similar operators want the benefits of modern, cloud-connected automation, but ripping out old PLCs and proprietary control systems while production keeps running is risky and expensive. Most plant managers would rather avoid betting an entire operation on one sweeping transformation.
This service tries to split the difference. Instead of a giant capital outlay, companies pay for automation the way they already pay for cloud software, gradually, with smaller upgrades over time rather than one terrifying rebuild. Schneider brings the industrial know-how. HPE brings the kind of hybrid cloud and data protection infrastructure that IT departments already trust and understand.
That combination matters because industrial automation has long suffered from a basic disconnect: IT teams want cloud-style standardization and governance, while plant operators care mostly about uptime and safety. Those two priorities don’t always get along, and bridging them has been one of the slower parts of factory digitization.
Schneider says outdated industrial architecture costs companies an average of $11 million a year, with larger enterprises losing more than $45 million. Those figures will vary by industry, but the broader point holds up: neglected automation systems sitting outside the cloud era have become an expensive problem hiding in plain sight.
The companies showed off a working version combining IT and operational technology workloads on hybrid cloud infrastructure at HPE Discover 2026, and it’s currently running live at Automate 2026 in Chicago. A demo proves the concept. Getting this to run cleanly across a decades-old industrial site is a harder test entirely.
Buyers exploring the offer should pay close attention to the fine print, especially what happens if they want to leave. Cloud-style subscription pricing sounds appealing until a company realizes how dependent it has become on a single vendor relationship.
