HP Global Partner Conference: 11 New Products To Fuel Partner Growth

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Hewlett-Packard is adding to its portfolio from the desktop to the data center at its Global Partner Conference this week with a number of breakthroughs. From an HP StoreOnce Backup Appliance with improved price performance to a game-changing enterprise ink in the office multifunction printer, here are the top 11 new products/services set to fuel partner growth.

11. HP Flex-Bundles For Microsoft Workloads

HP is teaming with Microsoft to highlight a series of HP Flex Bundles for Microsoft Workloads that will be part of the computer giant's Just Right IT SMB offering.

Among the new HP Flex-Bundle prevalidated reference architectures that are being previewed at the partner conference: Microsoft Flex Bundles for Midmarket Unified Collaboration and Communications with Microsoft Lync, HP Flex Bundles for Data Management with SQL Server, and HP Secure Access and Continuity Solution for Microsoft Hyper-V. Microsoft is also eyeing a Flex Bundle for Midmarket Business Intelligence.

"We are making it a lot easier for the channel to bring these solutions to their customers," said Peter Davidson, senior director of worldwide distribution at Microsoft. "These bundles represent core bread-and-butter solutions they can build on with their own services."

10. HP StoreOnce Backup Appliance Gets More Capacity

HP is aiming to best rival EMC with its HP StoreOnce deduplication backup appliance with a new 48-TB expansion shelf. HP claims the new capacity point will help HP and its partners compete against EMC's Data Domain 2500 with comparable backup and recovery capacity and performance, but at a 25 percent lower cost, said Craig Nunes, vice president of marketing for HP storage.
The 48-TB expansion shelf increases the HP StoreOnce maximum usable pre-dedupe capacity to 124 TB compared with today's 36 TB. "With a 10:1 or 20:1 dedupe ratio, it can now store up to 1.24 PB to 2.48 PB," said Nunes.

9. New StoreEasy NAS Platform Adds Dropbox-Like Capability

HP's StoreEasy NAS platform, which targets the $5,000 to $10,000 storage price band, is getting a major software upgrade that adds WorkFolder, a new file sync and share capability the company said is based on Microsoft technology to provide a self-installed Dropbox-like capability.

Performance of the StoreEasy NAS platform got a boost with the adoption of the new SMB 3.02 protocol. And for companies without dedicated IT staff, the StoreEasy software now includes a new dashboard for easy monitoring of issues as well as a new configuration wizard, HP said.

8. New Entry Level HP MSA 1040 Storage Array

HP is bringing enterprise-class storage array capabilities to the SMB market with a new price performance mark with its entry-level MSA 1040 storage array.

Targeted at the $10,000 to $25,000 storage price band, the HP MSA 1040 can be configured with up to 100 hard drives while offering 50 percent more performance at a 25 percent lower cost than previous MSA models, HP said.

The HP MSA 1040 can be upgraded to the HP MSA 2040, a higher-performance model with twice the disk capacity by simply upgrading the controller, said HP’s Nunes. "If you are a growing business, and don't want to kick yourself for not buying the 2040, we have a data-in-place upgrade to the 2040."

7. HP Services360Pro Service

HP Technology Services is rolling out a new Services360Pro tool aimed at dramatically increasing recurring services revenue for partners. Partners that have piloted the tool have seen a 20 percent increase in the size of the contracts, said Dave Twohy (pictured), vice president of Global Channels For HP Technology Services. Not only that, the tool has lowered partner cost of sales by a whopping 50 percent, said Twohy. "This is going to create new revenue and profit pools for partners from services," he said.

The dramatic cost of sales savings comes from partners' ability to see, manage and renew all of their HP Care Pack and service customer contracts from a Salesforce.com application built by HP Technology Services.

6. Simplifying HP Foundation Care

HP Technology Services is simplifying its reactive HP Enterprise Group Foundation Care offering, reducing it from 15 to 20 separate offerings to as few as three to five packages per product. That's a huge step forward in eliminating what could be a confusing portfolio for customers to understand and partners to sell, said HP’s Twohy.

HP also has a new version of its Connected Experience Foundation Care software aimed at providing an even higher level of remote monitoring diagnostic capability. "This just makes it a richer experience for our partners," said Twohy. The new simplified Foundation Care portfolio offering will be available worldwide April 1.

5. HP Datacenter Care

HP's Technology Services team is rolling out a new Datacenter Care offering, which can be co-sold by HP Gold and Platinum ServiceOne enterprise partners. The new service supports hybrid cloud environments and can be customized for customers. HP said the offering is based on what it calls a "structured framework of repeatable tested and globally available data center services building blocks. "We will provide support for either traditional server stack, private cloud, public cloud or cloud burst mode," said HP’s Twohy. "This is really supporting customers for the new style of IT. HP said it is investing in additional data center care services enablement and simplification in the second half of the year.

4. HP Proactive Care

HP is now allowing HP ServiceOne partners to deliver what is the fastest-growing HP services offering since it was brought to the market in 2012, HP Proactive Care. That's a big deal given the popularity of the proactive offering, which provides a single view of a customer’s IT environment with proactive alerts and regular system scans and health checks in a bid to prevent downtime. HP said customers that buy the offering experience a 66 percent reduction in downtime. The big change adds channel technical talent to the HP technical teams already monitoring customer sites. "We think this is going to be huge," said HP’s Twohy. "Now partners can be part of the Proactive experience with thousands of [HP] experts. We think this is going to take the whole support experience for customers to another level." HP said the Proactive Care partner delivery is slated for "controlled release in July with a broader rollout in the fall to all Gold and Platinum HP ServiceOne enterprise partners.

3. HP Flexible Capacity: A New Way To Get To The Cloud

HP's new Flexible Capacity Technology Services offering, which will be available in May with expanded availability in the fall, is a game-changer for partners looking to move aggressively to the cloud. With Flexible Capacity, partners take advantage of the HP Technology Services offering, which enables them to instantly become cloud service or managed service providers on a pay-as-you-go model without a major capital expenditure. "We can put this directly in the partner's facility with a pay-as-you-go monthly fee based on what they and their end user customers consume," said HP’s Twohy. "Partners can now use this Flex Capacity to transform themselves. We haven't seen this anywhere else in the industry."

2. HP ConvergedSystem 500 for SAP HANA

HP is spotlighting its ConvergedSystem 500 for SAP HANA, which is designed for SAP analytics and data warehouse workloads, at the partner conference. HP, which is hosting a number of IBM partners at the show as part of a partner recruitment drive, said the system provides two times faster analytics processing in comparison to IBM, a well-established force in the SAP systems market. The new HP Shark comes at a vulnerable time for IBM, which is in the process of selling its x86 server business to Chinese-based computer giant Lenovo in a $2.3 billion deal. HP ConvergedSystems Senior Vice President Tom Joyce says the time is right for IBM partners to move to ConvergedSystem 500. "We are getting about a 2X capacity over the equivalent IBM system for our in-memory solution," he said. "We are not mincing words all."

1. The HP Officejet Enterprise Color MFP X555 and X585

HP is taking its ink in the office offensive into the enterprise with its game changing Officejet Enterprise Color MFP X555 and 585 that provide all the enterprise software features demanded by big business in a color multifunction printer that delivers twice the speed of laser at half the cost and the same quality. John Patterson, vice president of imaging and printing for MCPc, a Cleveland headquartered national solution provider, says the new printer is going to shake up the copier printer landscape. "This is a product that represents a major paradigm shift. It's in a class by itself. This has everything. It has speed, all the capabilities of secure enterprise pull printing, a robust scanner and it is very inexpensive. The price point and total cost of ownership changes everything. It has been a while since a product like this has come along that changes the way people think."

The HP Officejet Enterprise Color MFP X555 is priced starting at $749 to $1,199, while the Officejet Enterprise Color MFPX585 is priced from $1,999 to $2,799. Both printers are available April 1.