If I could sum up in one word HPE’s 2023 Partner Growth Summit it would be “pending”.
While the company had some huge announcements, the biggest being HPE GreenLake for Large Language Models (LLMs) and its evolved “edge to cloud to AI” strategy, there was slim pickings for the channel in this brave new world.
As I wrote at the time, while AI was listed as a competency area for its Partner Ready and Partner Ready Vantage programs the elements that actually fell under it – HPC for Enterprise, Supercomputing, Data Analytics Solutions, and AI Solutions – were listed as “future options”.
It was quite a distant future, as well, with fiscal year 2025 cited as likely the earliest opportunity for partners to actually get involved in these areas.
With HPE Partner Growth Summit 2024 taking place on Monday – four days away as I write – one has to wonder what exactly will be on offer for channel partners in this area. I can’t imagine they will be completely left out in the cold (again!) but at the same time there’s been no indication from the company so far of a shift in strategy.
It’s not all doom and gloom
While HPE’s flagship announcements and promotion may all be about its AI and HPC prowess, much of the company’s revenue still comes from very traditional segments.
In its Q2 FY24 results, server revenue was the standout success story, experiencing 18% revenue growth year-over-year. This is compared to Intelligent Edge(-19%), Hybrid Cloud (-8%), and financial services (+1%).
Reselling, integrating, and managing on premises hardware is still where the channel makes a lot of its money, not just when it comes to HPE, but more generally.
Yes, there is a need to add value – selling it and forgetting it for five years is not an option – but it has remained a stalwart, even with the cloud computing revolution.
More on Vantage?
HPE Partner Ready Vantage was also under the spotlight at last year’s Partner Growth Summit and I believe we can expect more of the same this year.
Partner Ready Vantage, as opposed to the more established Partner Ready program, clearly plays into HPE’s overall strategy; it will be interesting to see if there are any more carrots wheeled out to tempt partners over to the newer system.
ITPro’s Jane McCallion will be live on the ground in Las Vegas next week for the HPE Partner Growth Summit and HPE Discover. Check our live blog and rolling coverage to keep tabs on all the news, updates, and announcements.
