HP gets selective over cloud partners

Vendor reveals intention to recruit small number of EMEA partners holding top-level specialisations

HP revealed it wants just 30 CloudBuilder partners in EMEA as it fleshed out more details around its new private cloud specialisation.

CloudBuilders must already hold HP's top-level Converged Infrastructure specialisation and have made a substantial investment in cloud demo kit through HP's Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) programme.

They must also gain two associated certifications.

Barbara Hallmans, cloud channel manager for ESSN in EMEA, said: "We want to keep it fairly exclusive as this is about setting up a private cloud at the customer, not reselling cloud services."

There are currently 125 Converged Infrastructure partners in EMEA and 30 CCoE partners, including OCSL, Kelway, Computacenter, ProLinx and Softcat in the UK.

John Johnson, vendor and alliances director at Kelway, said HP would form a key part of the VAR's cloud strategy.

"What resonates most about CCoE in our business is the credibility it gives us with customers but also within the selling teams in EMEA," he said. "Because HP has made it relatively selective, it carries a bit more gravitas."

HP claimed its cloud push is more than just hype, revealing that its CloudSystem technology has been adopted by 500 customers, about 40 per cent of which are based in EMEA.

Hallmans said: "Until the solution was 100 per cent waterproof, there was hesitance in some countries. But last year we saw that changing and EMEA overtaking other regions."

Day two of HP's global partner summit also saw the vendor's PSG arm unveil the world's first 27in all-in-one workstation – the Z1.

Addressing partners, PSG boss Todd Bradley admitted HP's PC resellers had been through the wringer since HP announced it would consider offloading PSG last August, an option it has since dropped.

"It is fair to say you have stuck with us and grown with us in what has been a challenging year," he said.

Bradley was as tight-lipped on HP's smartphone strategy as he had been the previous day, when he told journalists it was "not something he was willing to discuss".