Cisco-HP Conference Battle In Vegas Has Partners Feeling The Love

Compugen CEO Harry Zarek, who was in Las Vegas this week shuttling back and forth between the Hewlett-Packard Global Partner Conference at the MGM Grand and the Cisco Partner Summit down the road at the Venetian, doesn't want to hear any talk about a battle between the two technology superpowers.

"They are both great businesses, we are doing well with both companies," said Zarek, whose company is No. 58 on the CRN SP500 with $443 million in annual sales. "It's all about growth. Both businesses are popping. They both have their act together. They are both focused on the future. There is just a great business opportunity, and it is all going to happen with partners. Partners are the center of the universe. They are killing us with love."

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Zarek says the HP and Cisco grab for the business and technical acumen that solution providers bring to the boardroom in the cloud era shows that it's simply a great time to be in the IT services business.

"They are almost cousins, they are giving the same message," said Zarek, referring to the keynote sessions from HP CEO Meg Whitman and Cisco CEO John Chambers. "It is about business value. It is about making sure we understand our value. It is not about the product or product specs. Both of them are saying the same thing and ultimately customers will make the decision. They are both big organizations, both looking at the market and they are coming to the same conclusion."

Zarek's sanguine view of the dueling partner conferences, with Cisco stealing some of HP's thunder by announcing its own public cloud on the first day of the HP partner conference, is shared by a number of top partners who were jumping between the two conferences this week. But that does not mean all partners were happy about making the trips back and forth down the Las Vegas strip. "If they do this again, I'll kill them," said one senior executive for a national solution provider organization rushing from the HP conference to make an appointment at the Cisco conference. Another SP500 CEO said he had already spent $100 on cabs and it was only the first day of the conference. The conference schedule had significantly raised his cost of doing business, he said, because he had to bring twice as many staff members to Vegas to attend sessions at both events.

NEXT: An Awesome Technology Battle Benefitting Partners And Customers

Mike Leeper, CTO of Denali Advanced Integration, No. 114 on the CRNSP500 list, said he and his team have been energized by Cisco's sudden entry into the public cloud market and an all out innovation offensive at HP.

"As a technology guy, this is awesome," he said just before attending an HP Americas partner session. "I want them to fight and scratch and throw all their cool toys and stuff at each other trying to be better. Then I can use my head and my team's skills to figure out how to work through that fight for the customer. We can help the customers be successful by showing them which tools are the right ones for their business."

The battle for cloud supremacy between Cisco and HP spells opportunity for solution providers that can help customers navigate the treacherous cloud computing market, said Leeper. "It may get ugly but we are going to be able to determine what the right technology fit is for our customers and we'll be able to deliver that to them," he said. "They don't need to be in the middle of the fight. We are right where we are supposed to be as a company to take advantage of it."

A top executive for a large national solution provider, who did not want to be identified, said he sees the reception that Cisco's public cloud entry has received from partners this week ironic given HP has had its enterprise-grade public cloud on the market in general availability since August 2012.

"You can see the difference between the two different organizations this week," said the solution provider executive. "There is more sizzle at Cisco with the marketing a little bit crisper. At HP, it's a little more understated. At HP it is all about engineering. The good thing is HP does not get out ahead of their skis on their products. That is the nice thing about it. We know from a customer and partner perspective when HP announces something it is rock solid."

The solution provider said he would be torn if he had to pick one vendor over the other. "Cisco has a pretty good history, if you invest in them you can win," he said. "But we also feel like it is a new day at HP. HP is very focused."

Ultimately the solution provider executive, who is working closely with both organizations on go to market strategies, said the battle between the two companies will benefit partners and customers. "You have got two of the biggest powerhouses raising the bar with innovation, and both of them are saying that the channel is key to their strategy."

Zarek said the biggest issue going forward is the training and enablement necessary for partners to educate and sell customers on the new style of IT and the Internet of Everything."The biggest thing we need now is sales enablement, help getting our salesforce scaled up in this new style of IT from technical proficiency to business acumen," he said.

Brian MacIntosh, vice president of sales for Compugen, said he sees both Cisco and HP helping Compugen raise its industry vertical knowledge in the cloud computing era. "They are approaching us directly to provide us with the industry insights to start those conversations with customers," he said

Zarek joked that the biggest benefit from the dueling partner conferences may be that he only had to make one trip to Las Vegas this year. "Coming to Vegas just once is a positive thing," he said.

PUBLISHED MARCH 25, 2014