Donatelli: HP Targets Three Key Product Development Inflection Points

Executive Vice President Dave Donatelli pointed to converged infrastructure, the cloud and software-defined data centers as three trends upon which HP is mapping its product strategies at the enterprise level. Donatelli then connected the dots between these inflection points and specific HP products that he believes translate to profitability for partners and value for customers.

All three of these trends require a different architecture, Donatelli told a capacity crowd at HP's Global Partner Conference, under way this week in Las Vegas. He then promised that his company would position itself at the forefront of the evolution.

[Related: Whitman's Profitability Pledge Has Partners Cheering ]

Donatelli showed the gathering a hardware component called "Moonshot," which carries four servers on a single module. "This carries the compute power of 10 racks in one," he said. "It uses nearly 90 percent less energy and has a 63 percent lower cost."

The executive also delivered an overview of some of the major product announcements coming out of HP this week, spanning servers, networking, BYOD, SDN and storage. Donatelli then announced a new channel-only promotion that bundles HP's 3PAR StoreServe 7000 product line with the company's StoreOnce backup technology. He noted that the channel had sold more 7000-series products last year than HP had actually manufactured and promised to ramp the production schedule to ensure sufficient supply to meet the demand. He then estimated an $18 billion market opportunity in this space.

According to Donatelli, 67 percent of HP's enterprise revenue is sold through the channel, including 96 percent of its networking gear at the high end of that number and 65 percent of its storage products at the low end of his statistic. He also told the partners that HP's storage revenues overall are looking at a 114 percent growth rate, year-over-year.

The company also announced new offering to help stimulate channel participation in cloud computing and related services.

"HP has been in a renewal process," said Jonathan Sharp, vice president of marketing at Latisys, an Ashburn, Va.-based MSP. "But I'm liking their commitment and their innovation -- especially in the cloud space. I noticed things begin to shift in a positive direction about a year ago. They're opening the kimono and trying to make us more successful. They are moving beyond functioning as a source of commodity hardware to a role that focuses on customer business challenges, and [that] helps our customers move from a capex emphasis to one that is more about opex."

Earlier Wednesday morning, GPC attendees watched a highly spirited presentation from HP's Printing and Personal Systems leadership who enthusiastically demonstrated a number of forward looking products, such as the Envy X2 convertible, EliteBook Folio, EliteBook Revolve convertible, ElitePad tablet and a host of high-end printers.

PUBLISHED FEB. 20, 2013