HP Americas Partner Conference: Ready to Talk Cloud?

As the HP Americas Partner Conference approaches (March 28-30, Las Vegas), it’s a safe bet Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker (pictured) and Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco will roll out cloud strategies to VARs, managed services providers and aspiring cloud services providers (CSPs).

After all, HP has little choice but to counter — or leapfrog — recent cloud partner program moves by Cisco and IBM. The Cisco Cloud Partner Program debuted at last week’s Cisco Partner Summit, and IBM launched a Cloud Computing Specialty at the IBM PartnerWorld conference in February 2011. Also, Dell is mulling some cloud partner program ideas amid a storage channel push, according to TalkinCloud’s sister site, The VAR Guy.

In stark contrast, HP is a “question mark” in the cloud market, according to BusinessWeek. The mainstream magazine notes: “…the new CEO has yet to articulate a cloud strategy.”

I bet that changes at the HP Americas Partner Conference. CEO Apotheker and Channel Chief DiFranco are set to keynote the event. DiFranco has extensive experience in the managed services market. Indeed, he previously developed MSP-centric partner initiatives while leading Lenovo’s channel efforts. I’d expect DiFranco to leverage those MSP channel experiences over in the cloud and SaaS markets.

Also of note: HP in December 2010 announced a managed services enterprise push and I suspect HP could extend that push toward the cloud market. Somewhere along the line, HP will also need to articulate a clear strategy that counters VCE — the joint venture form VMware, Cisco and EMC. Rumor has it VCE is now preparing its own dedicated partner program for VARs focused on virtualization and private clouds.

HP needs a response. My best guess: I expect to hear it at the HP Americas Partner Conference.

Follow Talkin’ Cloud via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for Talkin’ Cloud’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Read our editorial disclosures here.