Why HP is different from IBM
Published: 31 Mar 2008 16:09 BST
...IT company in terms of those three factors. And the customer loyalty and satisfaction is an important part of it.
It is one thing to be the size of IBM, but do you want to be like IBM? You used to be known as a very different company but now people tend to see you as very similar. How can you maintain the distinctiveness?
We are quite different from IBM. We are both very, very different companies. HP is, at its heart, a technology company and our focus is on technology for better business outcomes and how we deliver that.
When we look at our portfolio and where the markets are going, we think HP's portfolio is much better aligned to the future markets. We have zero percent of our business in mainframes. The percent of our business that is in blades, in x86 servers and our Integrity line, is 100 percent. So our technology is more focused on the things that are forward looking.
Similarly, our software business, enterprise management and automation are clearly right at the top of every person's problem list from an IT perspective because they have to drive down the labour costs inside IT. So we feel that our portfolio is more technology focused and on the services that wrap around that technology. So we think it is better aligned to where the market is going.
What is HP's take on virtualisation and where do you think the barriers are that stop people getting the maximum value from it?
A lot of people associate virtualisation with the server, and what really needs to be done by customers is to virtualise the entire datacentre, the servers, the storage, the networking and the applications. And the first problem customers run into when they start doing that is: "How do I manage this thing?" When I have physical servers sitting there, virtual servers and in a mixed environment, what do I do?
One of the strengths of HP is the strength of our balance sheet
Ann Livermore
The software we provide is to manage both the physical and the virtual servers through a single pane of glass, a single set of software, and actually create the equivalent of a logical server environment that is being managed. We believe one of the biggest impediments has been: "How do I manage this thing once it is in production?" With our software, you are able to visualise it, plan the changes and actually make the changes in the environment.
Do you see a slow transition to virtualisation?
Yes, and most are going to find that the transition from physical to virtual is slow enough that they are going to have to manage both for a while.
But you do see virtualisation on the desktop becoming more popular?
Absolutely. We believe that for security reasons, for performance reasons, cost reasons, any of those can be compelling reasons for a virtualised desktop. Or a thin-client accessing the services you need from that device.
Could this be ideal for blades?
PC blades can be an implementation of virtualisation. HP made an acquisition a year ago of Neoware for our PC business to give us the capability to have a virtualised client environment. So we feel good about our blade business. Half of all virtualised environments are blades so when people are thinking of virtualising, very often they end up with a blades environment. That places us in a strong position.
Do you see yourselves making many acquisitions? What is the strategy here?
HP made 23 acquisitions over the past three years and on a continuing basis we are making decisions about whether we want to build something or [link] with someone in the industry or a partner or do we want to acquire the technology to be ours inside HP [all the time].
One of the strengths of HP is the strength of our balance sheet. We have a lot of cash and one of the results of that is the strength of our position to make acquisitions when they make sense.
How much cash do you have for buying?
Cash can be used for lots of different purposes. It can be used for M&A or for investments inside the company, or share buybacks or dividends. We have a lot of different uses of the cash. We never talk about any specific targets, or categories or size of the fields.
Are you seeing the green agenda with customers and do they see that in terms of savings, cost reduction?
Yes, there is a question of whether the "green" refers to the environment or money. Businesses need to have a cost justification for almost everything they do and the best outcome is when you have something that is both good for the environment and good from a cost perspective.
We have put a lot of focus behind power and cooling because we believe that from a datacentre perspective, being able to reduce the energy consumption...
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