Exclusive Interview : HP Enterprise Group is greater than the Sum of its Parts - Neelam Dhawan, Country MD, HP India

Overall how would you characterize HP India’s growth during FY 15?

HP in India has been successful in FY 15 across portfolios – from hardware including PC, laptop, printers, servers, storage and networking; to software including cloud, big data, security and mobility and finally, services. The key to HP’s success has been innovations in products and services that we brought into the market over the course of the last 18 months that work very well in this dynamic environment. We have the trust and faith of being the enterprise technology partner to several large businesses across banking, manufacturing, public sector and telecom in this country. The HP solutions are best in class, which makes it easy for all these businesses to adopt modern enterprise technology and focus on growth. We have been innovating for over seven decades and the depth of our intellectual property IP, talent and experience is the key to our success.

If you take a segment wise view, how would you go about- Servers, Storage and Services?

Together the whole of HP Enterprise Group is greater than the sum of its parts, with a portfolio comprised of industry-leading servers, storage, networking, converged systems and technology services, along with cloud solutions. We offer customers choice and flexibility across the broadest range of enterprise technologies to help bridge datacenter needs of today and tomorrow.

Servers:

HP has a consistent track record of redefining the server market to meet the next wave of computing requirements. Verticals like Telecom, Public Sector, Education and Research, and IT/ITES are driving server growth for HP India. Big purchases by cloud computing providers are also changing the server market. Based on industry standards for hyper scale computing environments, HP ProLiant servers are cost effective and scale to meet the most demanding workloads. HP offers cloud computing providers with extreme power requirements, servers that are optimized for performance and serviceability.

Although there has been a lot a change in the industry, according to  Gartner, HP’s worldwide server revenue grew 10.4 percent in the first quarter of 2015, enabling HP to maintain the top spot in the rankings with 23.8 percent market share. HP also maintained its leadership in server shipments with 20 percent market share.

Storage:

India is a key market for HP Storage, with growth rates higher than worldwide and the Asia Pacific-Japan region overall. The largest segment in the Indian storage market is the mid-range. With HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage and HP StoreOnce Backup focusing on increasing efficiency, HP can help organizations in India address some of their most acute concerns: reducing upfront investment and running costs on datacenter space and enhancing power and cooling, which they can achieve through built-in thin technology and massive de-duplication while benefiting from industry leading performance, features and benefits.

The benefits of HP Storage are relevant to most vertical segments in India, and we have excellent traction in segments that realize benefits faster like IT/ITeS. In addition, there is significant opportunity with Indian service providers that can offer SMB customers easy-to-consume hosted infrastructure, including cloud servers and storage.

According to  IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, in 2014, HP had greater external disk storage system growth than any other major storage company, propelled strongly by HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage.

Services:

HP Technology Services (TS) takes a solution-centric approach to designing and delivering consulting and support services, which is particularly relevant to Indian customers that require the ability to make changes quickly given how dynamic the marketplace is.. For example, the new HP Flexible Capacity service helps customers reap the benefits of private cloud at a much lower cost than building and maintaining their own private cloud infrastructure. In India, HP TS is focused on all major verticals, with industry-leading solutions for Telecom, BFSI and Retail that are particularly relevant to India businesses.

What are the key business highlights for HP India during FY 15-big client wins et al?

FY 15 has been a great year for the enterprise side of HP India’s business across the storage, server, networking, technology services and software divisions. The acquisition of Aruba Networks – a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise, was a great strategic move for HP as the companies are highly complementary and combining them creates a leader in enterprise mobility, positioning HP to enable and accelerate the enterprise transition to a converged campus network. Together, HP and Aruba will offer a unified solution to help customers successfully manage their networking needs throughout the transition to a mobile first infrastructure.

 On Priorities for FY 16?

From a storage perspective, flash is going mainstream, and this equates to incredible opportunities for HP and our channel partners. A wide set of mission-critical applications can benefit from the lower and more predictable response times delivered by flash: database optimization, Microsoft Exchange, ERP, virtualization, private cloud, VDI, as well as specialized applications related to industries such as health care and finance.

Innovations around software-defined networking (SDN) that promise to bring new levels of automation and efficiency to data center and campus networks will be a priority for HP’s networking side of business. Industry experts predict a swift migration to SDN, as it promises to bring new levels of automation and efficiency to data center and campus networks. According to IDC, the SDN market is expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2016.

As the development of smart cities in India becomes a priority, it is vital for the government to strike a balance between resource allocation, investment in infrastructure and improving delivery of services to citizens through the effective use of technology. The HP Future Cities team will work closely with the government to provide Big Data, Cloud, Mobility and Security solutions that allow governments to become more efficient, drive economic growth and create sustainable communities. Ultimately this will help them improve quality of life for its citizens.