Key highlights from Antonio Neri's HPE Discover keynote
CEO rattles through a host of updates to the vendor's strategy and portfolio in Las Vegas
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) CEO Antonio Neri (pictured) took the stage at the end of the first day of HPE Discover - HPE's end-user conference, which follows the vendor's Global Partner Summit.
We've rounded up the key takeaways for the channel from his two-hour session.
HPE's crystal ball is on point
Now fully bedded in as HPE's chief exec, having taken over from Meg Whitman earlier last year, Neri was not afraid to tout HPE's credentials.
Early on in his session, he credited HPE with pioneering a number of trendy tech innovations currently at the heart of discussions.
"If you look back two years ago, the strategy that we laid out has proved to be correct," he said. "It is ahead of the market.
"We were the first to say the world will be hybrid, and it is. We were the first with converged infrastructure and so hyper-converged became the next evolution, so we acquired one of the leading platforms, SimpliVity.
"We also knew that the future was about composability, so we were the first to bring to market a composable cloud experience to the datacentre in HP Synergy, which is now a $1.5bn business. Then we saw the opportunity at the edge, where we have placed our bets, starting with the acquisition with Aruba.
"Our strategy, and our ability to deliver on it, is ahead of the market."
HPE will help you with three things
Neri said that HPE's abilities in the digital transformation space can be broken into three groups: technology, people and economics.
Perhaps surprisingly, he labelled technology as the easiest of the three in which to innovate, claiming that HPE's capabilities in people and flexible buying options will prove to be its real strengths.
"We know that every one of you is on a digital transformation journey today," he said.
"In most cases the goal is to get speed, agility and efficiency so you can focus on accelerated innovation.
"We address the three fundamental areas that are holding you back.
"Transforming technology is actually the easy part. Transforming your people and processes to operate in an agile, cloud way is actually the hardest part. That is why we have strengthened our HPE PointNext team to help you.
"The most overlooked part of the transformation is the economics. How do fund your transformation and get started? How can you optimise your infrastructure? HPE Financial Service can help you answer all these questions."
HPE will pay partners and customers for being environmentally friendly
HPE's circular economy principle featured in keynotes at both HPE Global Partner Summit and Discover.
The concept is designed to keep older IT in use for longer, with the aim of dramatically reducing e-waste. End users can hand old assets to HPE, which will recycle it.
HPE claims that it helped companies claim back over $330m through reclaimed IT last year.
It says that 89 per cent of the old technology it receives is reused, with 97 per cent of the rest broken down to its raw materials and recycled. This means that just 0.3 per cent is discarded.
"We can help you along your sustainability journey, while helping you free up capital from legacy assets, through our unique global asset recovery centres, where we process more than four million assets a year, but more importantly we can turn all of that into cash," Neri said.
"It is truly unique because we can address your legacy environments and build and connect your next generation of cloud applications so you can focus on transforming your business."
This is of interest to the channel because HPE has just introduced financial incentives for partners.
HPE will pay a three per cent rebate to partners for the sale of certified preowned equipment (which channel boss Paul Hunter said is similar to the rebate for new products), and also pay a referral fee for all opportunities for upcycling services greater than $50,000.
This will pay three per cent to Silver and Business partners, and five per cent to Platinum and Gold partners.
HPE will be an as-a-service company in three years' time
In perhaps the biggest announcement for the channel at the event, Neri pledged that HPE will offer its entire portfolio through its HPE GreenLake consumption model by 2022 - a move he said makes HPE a true as-a-service company.
He said businesses will be able to pay purely for the on-prem tech they actually use - in pay-per-use, subscription, and fully managed models.
GreenLake launched last year and has currently been sold in 56 countries, he said.
Neri also revealed that GreenLake is now available to mid-market businesses through tailored packages, which will be sold through partners.
You can read our full report on the GreenLake news here.
'Intelligent storage is here'
The main product announcement was HPE Primera - a new storage product that will sit at the very top end of HPE's offering.
Neri was joined on stage by HPE's president of hybrid IT Phil Davis, who said that Primera is built for mission-critical applications, with HPE vowing the product provides 100 per cent availability.
Davis also claimed that Primera "eliminates the compromise" of agility vs reliability in primary storage.
HPE says that Primera can be installed by customers in less than 20 minutes, eliminating the need to employ complex and costly consultancy services.
The vendor said that Nimble will continue to be its recommended offering for the lower end of the market, adding that Primera does not render 3PAR obsolete.