ILM assistance
The fifth pillar of HP's product introductions is a set of services built around ILM, an area that's gaining increasing attention from users and vendors alike. "It's almost a requirement for anybody who has any type of announcement to have something about ILM in it," observes the Evaluator Group's Kerns.
The first wave of ILM services are divided into six modules designed to address specific steps in an ILM implementation process. HP is using a workshop approach for each of the modules and has tailored them so that each one shouldn't require long customer engagements to complete each step in the process. Beyond allowing customers to pick and choose from a menu of the services, there doesn't appear to be anything particularly unique about the offerings. However, HP should be able to parlay its solid reputation in the services arena to make its ILM efforts successful. "You know HP knows how to deliver services," says ESG's Hurley.
Offering a formal approach to ILM planning is a timely move, with compliance issues compelling many companies to re-examine their data retention policies. "I guess we've bought into HP's whole concept around information lifecycle management," says NetBank's Warnock. The company recently purchased an HP Reference Information Storage System (RISS), so the new ILM services could be helpful as it develops its plans around RISS.
Loyalties tested over the past year
By any account, HP's storage business has had a rough time for the last year and a half. IDC's report on first quarter revenues and market shares for 2005 shows HP still trailing EMC in external storage sales: EMC held 21.4% of the market vs. HP's 17.7%. While EMC's share was down slightly from its 22% market share for the last quarter of 2004, HP's share has dipped even lower from its fourth quarter 19.4% share.
For all disk storage (direct-attached and networked), HP still maintains its leadership position over IBM. For the fourth quarter of 2004, IDC shows HP's market share at 24.2% vs. IBM's 22.5%. In the first quarter of this year, HP's share dropped to 22.5%, but it widened its lead over IBM, which had an 18.6% share. HP's strength in the overall disk storage market can be attributed to its strong server and desktop sales.
It can be argued that much of the damage done to HP's storage image and market share has been self-inflicted. In a recent interview with Storage editors, Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's technology solutions group, conceded that "it's been a fair critique over the past year that, at times, we had part of our portfolio that was ready to be refreshed."
HP's Schultz echoes Livermore's refrain, saying that "over the last year there have been a lot of questions," such as "Is HP committed to storage? What's HP doing in storage? and Where are they going in storage?" But Schultz is confident that this round of announcements, along with others to come, will help silence critics. "The best way to answer that is to show people," he says.
The gaps in HP's product line and its slowness to refresh some existing products may be attributed to the complexities of the Compaq merger. Along the way, HP lost several key storage executives, and several more were replaced by former CEO Fiorina after disappointing results. All of this added to the impression that the company's storage strategy was adrift. "One of the things that was a concern before the current management was 'What's the real, long-term storage direction?'" says UPMC's Furmanski.
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ILM Help |
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Besides a bevy of hardware and software, Hewlett-Packard's (HP's) Storage Services group launched a new set of services built around various information lifecycle management (ILM)-related disciplines. HP touts these offerings as a new set of services, although some might have been provided in similar forms in the past. The initial six services—HP says others will be added later—include:
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| ILM Discovery Workshop |
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| ILM Data and Information Discovery |
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| ILM Business Requirements Analysis |
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| ILM Business Value Analysis |
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| ILM Solution Architecture Blueprint |
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| ILM Policy Definition |
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| HP says the new suite of services is vendor-agnostic, and not just intended for current or potential HP customers. Sets of services will also be tailored for specific vertical markets. Pricing for each phase is variable, based on a company's size and the complexity of its requirements. |
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The consensus is that new products have helped to re-establish HP's mindshare in the storage world. And having a more complete product line will help, too. "They're not going to have to come to the table with a partial portfolio anymore," says Hurley.
Somewhat lost in the product blitz is the announcement that HP is significantly beefing up its field forces. "We've been hiring specialists," says Livermore, "but we still don't have as many as we'd like."
The company has a lot of loyal customers, but their loyalty hasn't necessarily translated into blind allegiance to the HP brand. Many HP customers, such as Premier Bankcard's Erkonen, have considered other vendors. "We've done due diligence and compared all the different vendors as we've been making our decisions," notes Erkonen, "and HP has still continued to be the vendor of choice." Similarly, Fender Musical Instruments' Pollock looked at storage systems from Dell and IBM before settling on HP.
But skeptics remain. "The joke was that if IBM sells sushi, HP sells raw fish," quips Furmanski. "It's the same thing, but it's how you market it." While doubts may linger for Furmanski, other HP users are convinced. Before the recent announcements, "We were a little disappointed," says Erkonen. "It's great to see the meat and potatoes back on HP's table."
