HP Public Cloud Surpasses 100 Partners; Seeks VARs, Integrators

Written by samdizzy
November 30, 2012

HP Cloud, which is Hewlett-Packard's public cloud, now has roughly 100 strategic partners across applications, databases, management, security, storage and other types of solutions. Does that mean HP Cloud, still mostly in beta, will reach a tipping point fast?

HP Cloud, which is Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE: HPQ) public cloud, now has roughly 100 strategic partners — including companies that focus on applications, development and testing, management, monitoring, security and storage services. Moreover, an HP Cloud Partner Pilot is seeking to line up VARs, systems integrators and consulting firms.

The HP partner milestones surface as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) wraps up AWS re:Invent, a 6000-person cloud conference for partners and customers that included S3 price cuts and a new cloud data warehouse called Redshift.

HP Cloud is a relative newcomer to the public cloud market. But it’s impressive to see roughly 100 technology companies moving into the HP Cloud ecosystem — especially before the HP Discover conference (Dec. 4-6, Franfurt, Germany). Key HP Cloud leaders including Senior VP Zorawar ‘Biri’ Singh and Senior Director Dan Baigent are expected to attend the conference, where HP will certainly offer update its HP Converged Cloud strategy.

The converged cloud effort extends across private, hybrid and public cloud environments. The idea is to use solutions like OpenStack to move customer workloads seamlessly from one environment to another.

More than a software and technology ecosystem, HP Cloud also is lining up VARs, SIs and consulting firms. According to HP’s website: “We offer you two options to partner with us. A Silver track is geared toward partners that want self-service. A Gold track is designed for partners that want more technical, sales, and marketing engagement from the HP Cloud. The Gold track is limited during the pilot.”

These HP Cloud efforts arrive as the technology giant seeks to turn the page on two earnings write downs — one involving EDS, the other invoving Autonomy — and a potential legal war with former Autonomy executives.

Still, I sense HP’s Singh has largely kept the public cloud team focused on deadlines and milestones, rather than financial distractions out on Wall Street. And that’s welcome news.

Talkin’ Cloud will watch HP Discover closely for more HP Cloud milestones.