HP Plans To Double Storage Sales Into Multivendor Systems

But Michael Feinberg, chief technology officer for HP's Network Storage business, also said that the company still must work on brand recognition in the storage segment eight months after its merger with Compaq.

"We've been successful since the merger in leapfrogging a number of companies to get to No. 1," Feinberg said, pointing to recent IDC market share data. "HP is the leader in storage."

Feinberg addressed the RBC Capital Markets System Area Network conference in New York. His comments jibe with recently published IDC studies that estimated HP's market share in the networking storage business at 26 percent. The next closest competitor, IBM, maintains 20 percent market share, according to IDC.

"We realized in May there were lots of questions on how we would execute," Feinberg said, referring to when the HP-Compaq merger closed. "We had a plan on how we would continue to grow and show the benefit of the plan very crisply."

Feinberg said HP has put a priority on doubling "off-platform" storage sales into accounts that have rival hardware from vendors such as IBM, Dell Computer and Sun Microsystems.

Feinberg told CRN that while he did not yet have data on how much of HP's storage installed base lies in multivendor solutions, he said the Compaq storage products and business have helped bring the company into these accounts.