Cynthia Starr, director, APJ strategic partnerships, Microsoft, moderated the session on HP and Microsoft frontline partnership and private cloud
In the final session in the server data and cloud track at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, a panel discussed how frontline partnership partners leverage Microsoft and HP to move customers to the private cloud.
Cynthia Starr, director, APJ strategic partnerships, Microsoft, moderated the session, while David Friedline, corporate director, business development, NWN Corporation, Iain Mobberley, technology director, Organised Computer Systems, and Omer Uyar, general manager, Intertech, sat on the panel. The three panelists are all FLP award winners, Starr says.
The HP and Microsoft relationship around private cloud was entered into in early 2011, and is a 3-year, $250 million joint investment. Both HP and Microsoft engineering teams have collaborated on a roadmap around virtualized solutions, Starr says.
The partners have released a portfolio of offers, but essentially the agreement combines Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, featuring Hyper-V and system center, on HP hardware.
Starr highlights one of these joint solutions, HP Virtual System for Microsoft, which recently won best in show at TechEd North America. HP Virtual System for Microsoft hosted the hands-on labs at the conference, and started 40,000 VMs during the labs, Starr says.
HP Virtual System for Microsoft is designed to simplify and streamline implementation, Starr says.
Friedline, Mobberley, and Uyar talked about how they have leveraged the HP and Microsoft partnership as frontline partnership partners.
Each panelist gave an example of a customer win that they secured because of their HP and Microsoft partnership.
Mobberly is the technology director of Organised Computer Systems, a strategic HP and Microsoft partner. The organization is a HP equipment reseller, and offers Microsoft virtualization and unified communications. He says its customer base is 60 percent commercial and 40 percent public.
Mobberly says it was introduced to one customer in the healthcare sector, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, by Microsoft as it was looking for a hosted Exchange provider.
The customer wanted to break away froma shared service, and had about 800 seats, Mobberly says. The customer wanted to use another vendor’s hardware for server and storage, but ended up buying into the HP and Microsoft private cloud.
“It was absolutely successful,” Mobberly says. “It accelerated their deployment.”
Mobberly says the customer needed acceleration and simplicity, and what it ended up building upon the private cloud included SharePoint, System Center and Exchange.
Mobberly says the customer placed the order within six weeks.
Talk back: Have you leveraged the HP and Microsoft frontline partnership in your business? How? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
