I’ve criticized Hewlett-Packard a few times for its lack of focus on managed services providers. But HP’s buyout of ArcSight, coupled with HP Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco’s managed services expertise, could help HP to further engaged MSPs — especially managed security service providers (MSSPs). Here’s why.

As you may have heard, HP paid $1.5 billion to acquire ArcSight earlier today. The move allows HP to expand its security software portfolio, potentially assisting enterprises and government organizations with compliance issues.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover that ArcSight works closely with MSSPs. Indeed, the company claims MSSPs leverage ArcSight for:

ArcSight’s MSSP partners include Atos Origin, Energis, Unisys and Sentry Metrics, the company says. Under HP’s ownership, I suspect HP Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco will attempt to further expand ArcSight’s MSSP reach.

DiFranco’s Next Moves

As you may recall, DiFranco jumped from Lenovo to HP in February 2010. Back at Lenovo, DiFranco was widely credited for developing the PC giant’s MSP engagement strategy.

By April 2010, DiFranco and other HP executives were starting to talk about MSP-centric SMB opportunities, including key managed print services opportunities. During the HP Americas Partner Conference  (HP APC), DiFranco also touched on the managed services topic. (Here’s all of our archived HP APC coverage.) And more recently, HP has been working more closely with MSP-centric software companies like Level Platforms.

Where is DiFranco taking the HP channel program next, and how will MSPs participate? I plan to ask DiFranco that question during the upcoming Ingram Micro VentureTech conference (October 3-6, San Francisco).

HP expects to complete the ArcSight buyout by the end of 2010. But I suspect DiFranco is already considering potential implications and opportunities for MSSPs.

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