What Have We Accomplished?
This week is my first anniversary with HP StorageWorks, and I have been looking back on what we accomplished in 2010. At the beginning of last year, we had a number of operational challenges and strategy questions, some obvious, and some not so obvious. We also had a lot of resources. We had the power of HP’s organization and brand. We also had arguably the broadest storage product line in the industry, covering everything from SMB to the very high-end, and SSDs to tape. This combination of challenges and resources was what made it exciting for me to join the storage team.
So what did we accomplish in 2010? Here is a partial list…
- Introduced X9000: In January 2010, HP introduced the first scale-out NAS platforms based on software from the acquisition of IBRIX. This was before I got here. It was impressive that they got these platforms out in less than three months after the acquisition closed.
- Introduced P4800: Scale-out SAN running on HP BladeSystem based on the LeftHand SAN/iQ software and Virtual Connect networking software.
- Introduced StoreOnce D2D: Innovative deduplication and backup appliances based on software from HP Labs.
- New MSA: Completely refreshed SMB platform, now called P2000 MSA.
- New XP: Completely refreshed high-end platform, our first on Intel, now called P9500XP.
- New LTO tape: It ain’t dead yet and we’re still #1.
- New StorageEssentials: Agent-less easy install for VMware. (OK, our group didn’t do this. HP Software did, but we cheered them on…).
- VMware VAAI support: On P4000 and other platforms.
- VDI and client virtualization: Delivered comprehensive solutions and reference architectures for VMware, Hyper-V, and Citrix delivering very low cost-per-seat on P4800/BladeSystem.
- Brought on new blood: Bill Philbin from NetApp, the whole 3PAR team, myself, and others with experience from EMC, NetApp, Panasas and elsewhere within HP.
- Integrated the business: We went from three different development teams with different processes to one with common product management, product lifecycle management, and communications.
- Delivered quality: We implemented a program which has dramatically improved field quality. Frankly we had some issues with field quality on EVA and some other products, largely due to funding cuts during the Hurd era and the lack of integration across the business unit. EVA field quality is now exceptional and the product is growing well. The program is the same process we ran with Donatelli at EMC and it has been so successful in storage it is now being rolled out in servers, networking, etc.
- Increased investment: Again, during the Hurd era, investment in storage went down and so did headcount. The team plowed ahead, maintaining support for all the products and adding more but the strain showed in product quality, morale and market share. Now we have increased investment significantly and we are hiring tons of people. If you are good, we want you…
- Grew our channel: We put a major focus on training and recruitment of new channel partners, and introduced an all new set of certification and training resources.
- Green Zones: This is an internal thing, but it’s something I am very proud of. We now deliver clear and simple positioning for every product line; that identifies exactly where and how to sell and use them for maximum success. This is based on solution testing that goes well beyond interoperability testing and ensures that the total package we deliver is successful for customers in a highly repeatable way. I have used this model in my last four jobs without fail. It is one of the reasons our field quality is looking so good.
- Converged: In the past, storage was kind of a separate business, run as a silo. Over the past nine months we have made a huge push to become part of converged infrastructure and the overall HP business. We now have our products and messaged integrated with BladeSystem Matrix, HP Networking, HP-UX, HP Software, etc. We are much better integrated with HP Enterprise Services (the artist formerly known as EDS) and our products are now the go-to storage standards. You now see that every time we deliver an announcement, solution or program, we do so in a coordinated way with server, networking and software solutions.
- Discontinued laggard products: This is one of the hardest things to do. As I said before, we had one of the broadest product lines in storage. This is great, but also a problem as we were stretched too thin and our focus was not clear. We also had too much reliance on third party niche products that filled small gaps in the portfolio, but consumed a lot of resources. We have discontinued PolyServe, SVSP, Bycast, Ocarina and others. In some cases this was painful, but these products were failing in the market and we now have more focus and more wood behind the arrow.
- We bought 3PAR: why? You’ll have to wait for my next blog….
Tom
