HP Brings Back Former Channel Exec To Manage Moonshot Server Business
Hewlett-Packard has brought back a former software executive to be the new manager of the company's Moonshot server business.
Steven Hagler recently took on the role of senior director for the Moonshot server business in the Americas, where he will lead strategy, business development and sales for the new server line, according to his LinkedIn profile.
HP's Moonshot servers, which were officially shown in April for the first time, is a new line of high-density, low-energy-consumption servers based on a modular design.
[Related: HP Partners: Excited About Moonshot Servers, Not So Much MicroServer Gen8 Servers ]
The first HP Moonshot servers coming to market feature modules based on the Intel Atom S1200 "Centerton" processors, with follow-up modules based on a wide range of processors including ARM and AMD to come. HP is also expected to introduce new modules optimized for specific applications as well.
HP was unable to provide more information about Hagler at press time.
Hagler spent 25 years at HP before leaving the company in mid-2010, when he served as director for HP's Industry Standard Server (ISS) software in the Americas. He then spent nearly two years as the global vice president for distribution and volume resell at SAP before rejoining HP in June.
Hagler's experience in the software business could have been a factor in his promotion to senior director given that one of the focuses on HP's Moonshot server line will be on application-specific server modules.
Hagler works with Paul Santeler, vice president and general manager of the Hyperscale Business Unit within the HP's ISS and Software business. Santeler is managing the technical development of the Moonshot servers.
The return of Hagler to HP to run the Moonshot business is good news to Rich Baldwin, CIO and chief strategy officer for Nth Generation Computing, a San Diego-based solution provider and HP partner.
Hagler has a long history in HP's channel management and was known as establishing and managing the vendor's series of Elite programs, Baldwin said. Hagler also spent time working with HP's partner advisory councils in the past, he said.
"He's a great guy," he said. "He really knows the channel. He'll be a great right hand man for Paul Santeler."
Baldwin said that both Santeler and Hagler will be speaking at this month's Nth Symposium in Anaheim, Calif.
NEXT: Assessing The Moonshot Market
Nth Generation is also hoping to have the HP Moonshot to show to customers, Nth's Baldwin said.
"Moonshot is not for everybody," Baldwin said. "It will be very big for a relatively small number of customers. Some of these customers will work with channel, some direct. Initially, it will go to pretty large organizations, or research centers, or for companies building really large Web farms."
Over time, however, Baldwin sees the HP Moonshot servers moving into midsize customers where the fact that a single Moonshot rack can hold the equivalent of 45 servers today and 180 in the future will result in huge cost and floor space savings, he said.
"Think of a company that needs 200 servers," he said. "I could see that company moving from five racks of servers to one rack. That will result in a staggering savings in power and space."
PUBLISHED JULY 23, 2013