HPE finds new Azure czar lurking in channel biz

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is rejigging the management team to power up Microsoft Azure sales after shuttering its own public cloud service at the start of this month, El Chan can reveal.

The firm has cuddled up to Microsoft and its cloudy service, rather than competing with public cloud players on price, as seems to be the established trend taking root in sector.

HPE last month launched the Converged System 250 - a sort of cloud-in-a-box type product, and is training 5k of its techies on Azure.

“We want to make sure we are in full execution mode and drive the full potential of this opportunity,” said Andy Isherwood, HPE UK chief in a memo to sent to staff late yesterday afternoon, seen by us.

As a result, UK and Ireland channel and indirect sales director for HPE is to drive Azure sales, or what the company also referred to as hybrid IT.

As is customary in these situations, the memo heaped praise on the “huge progress driving growth and development” of the channel business that Ansell achieved over the past two year in situ.

“He brings to this new [hybrid IT] role a huge amount of experience across channel, alliances, business unit management and sales,” the memo added. Ansell will still report to Isherwood.

The note confirmed Lee Hughes, who currently heads up HPE’s consulting division locally will succeed Ansell, managing resellers, service providers, alliances and in a change, distribution too.

This should, in theory at least, give the local distributors more control over their destiny to make decisions that impact them.

Hughes has run the consulting unit for 22 months and has a “profile” that is “ideal in the context of Hybrid IT and our Transformation Areas where our partners are pivoting towards a solution led model and addressing new consumption models”, the missive added.

This is standard biz speak for less straight product sales, more utility-based computing. ®