HP CEO Slams Oracle Before Sharing Cloud Vision
Talk about aggressive multitasking. First, HP CEO Leo Apotheker slammed Oracle. Then, Apotheker shifted his attention to cloud computing during the HP Americas Partner Conference today in Las Vegas. The “Everybody On” cloud vision was ambitious, including plans for an HP Cloud, an app marketplace and developer tools that will serve the consumer, SMB and enterprise markets. Here’s a recap.
1. Opening Shot: Describing Oracle’s recent decision to drop Itanium support, Apotheker said: “It’s a rather clumsy attempt by Oracle to prop up a failing and deteriorating hardware platform,” a reference to Oracle-Sun’s SPARC hardware.
2. The Japan Crisis: Apotheker said HP has not witnessed any major supply chain problems tied to the recent Japan earthquakes and tsunami, but HP continues to watch the situation closely, he added.
3. The Cloud: Apotheker described an “Everybody On” cloud strategy where HP will deliver a seamless, secure, context-aware experience for a connected world.”
4. Innovation: A few weeks ago, Apotheker had suggested that HP lost its innovation soul. Apotheker seemed to reverse that statement today, saying that the spirit of innovation is “alive and well” within HP labs, in the market and in the channel. “We are the market leader in virtually every category in which we compete, from the consumer to the enterprise,” Apotheker asserted.
5. Four-part Cloud Strategy: To succeed in the cloud, Apotheker says HP will
- Optimize traditional environments
- Build and manage cloud-based architecture
- Enable transformation to hybrid models
- Define and deliver the connected world from the consumer to the enterprise.
6. Grand Ambitions: Apotheker said HP intends to “build an run an HP Cloud. We will be introducing a public cloud in the near future.” He promised that HP will offer an app marketplace for consumers and enterprises. And he asserted: “HP Is the only company that integrate all of it from the data center, to the cloud, to devices.”
7. Early Adopters: Apotheker said seven of the 10 leading cloud service providers run HP solutions, and eight of the 10 most trafficked websites run on HP.
8. The Big Question: Apotheker said channel partners will participate in HP’s cloud strategy, but he did not disclose how HP partners will potentially profit from the HP cloud.
The HP Americas Partner Conference continues through March 30, so perhaps some cloud partner program answers will emerge in the next two days…
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