Partner momentum in Q1 highlights HPE channel strength for 2024

March 18, 2024 | SIMON EWINGTON, VICE PRESIDENT OF WORLDWIDE CHANNEL & PARTNER ECOSYSTEM, HPE

Partner business grew in Q1 FY24 driven by the expansion of our innovation portfolio and partner program evolution

In this article

  • Channel-led results contributed an increasing percentage of HPE’s overall Q1 FY’24 financial performance, demonstrating the importance of our partners and the result of helping them to differentiate and drive relevance in the market
  • AI, compute, and private cloud solutions present attractive revenue opportunities for partners while helping customers solve real business challenges
  • HPE Partner Ready Vantage continues to expand competency offerings and has assisted partners in acquiring hundreds of new customer logos since launching in November 2023

Dedication of partner ecosystem enables positive growth

Following HPE’s Q1 FY’24 financial results, we would like to share the strong channel-led momentum and provide updates on the exciting partner opportunities when working with HPE.

The Q1 headline was that the HPE channel and partner ecosystem continued to drive significant revenue across products and services. This achievement translated to positive year-over-year growth and highlighted the strength of our partners and their criticality to our mutual customers.

In addition, partner orders grew close to double digits, with particular strength in as-a-Service offerings that customers demand.

We are very grateful to our partner community for their focus on closing deals as 2023 came to a close and starting the new year so strongly as 2024 budgets opened up.

In Q1 FY24 partner orders grew close to double digits, with particular strength in as-a-Service offerings that customers demand

AI: Getting in on the ground floor

At HPE, we’re providing a variety of new ways for our partners to grow their businesses by leveraging the newest innovations in Artificial Intelligence.

We predicted late last year that an AI explosion would result in far greater market opportunities, with the total addressable market for this part of the IT industry equaling more than $146 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of about 24%.1 And HPE is committed to helping our partners solve business problems for their customers. Whether it’s AI-driven computer vision that turns everyday activity into actionable data, generative AI for boosting employee productivity, or other AI-powered Large Language Model (LLM) applications like fraud detection, partners can count on HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers to run their infrastructure workloads sustainably. An additional part of our AI infrastructure strategy is to offer customers with a choice of ecosystem partners, from AI cluster management, AI platform, and AI models.

Sustainability is another key advantage of adopting HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers. It’s estimated that 40% of enterprise servers today are more than five years old. Even though these older units only perform seven percent of the work, they use 66% of the power. In addition to stealing energy, the larger footprint means the servers take up valuable floor and rack space. If that’s not enough, these older units lack the latest cybersecurity protections, increasing the risk of exposure to bad actors who want to disrupt a company’s world.

By engaging with customers around the economies and advantages of modernizing their compute infrastructure, our partners can assist customers with saving power-related costs while also enabling business initiatives that enhance profitability. That’s a win for the partner, a win for the customer, and a win for the planet.

Strong uptake for HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud

In addition to new compute opportunities, partners are experiencing the benefits of HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition. This solution dramatically accelerates the deployment of HPE GreenLake by enabling partners and customers to spin up virtual machines (VMs) across hybrid clouds on demand.

Partners can order HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition via the HPE Partner Ready Portal, and they can very easily wrap other services, such as managed or cloud solutions, into the final sale. HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition (PCBE) also increases partners’ recurring revenue and gross margin. Customer VMs can be managed by partners or by adding HPE Managed Services. In addition, HPE encourages partners to offer their value-added services when adopting PCBE. These services may include advisory or consulting services, infrastructure upgrades, or data migration offerings.

Partners appreciate the breakthrough innovation for delivering the hardware, software, and unified control panel to manage storage, compute, and networking to customers within a few business days. And they’re excited about the fast-ramp training and enablement support to get onboarded quickly.

HPE Partner Ready Vantage is a game-changing experience for enhancing differentiation, building stronger practices, and delivering complete solutions to support a variety of customer business models

AI and more on tap for HPE Partner Ready Vantage

To help our partners engage successfully with customers around as-a-Service offerings, we’re seeing more and more partners find success within our HPE Partner Ready Vantage program.

HPE Partner Ready Vantage is a game-changing experience for enhancing differentiation, building stronger practices, and delivering complete solutions to support a variety of customer business models. The program enables partners to expand and deepen their expertise in delivering as-a-service solutions by enrolling in focused Centers of Expertise across three tracks – Build, Sell, and Service. (Pictured below.)

Depending on the partners’ business models or growth plans, they are welcome to enroll in as many centers as they choose. 

Since opening the program to all partners on November 1, 2023, HPE Partner Ready Vantage, has grown with more than 2,000 partners already enrolled.

These partners can access all Centers of Expertise across both HPE Hybrid Cloud and HPE Aruba Networking. Partners enhance their expertise through 12 competencies, and individual learners earn industry recognition and certifications.

We’re excited to share that new competencies for high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI) technology, sustainability, and sovereignty will soon be available.

In just a few months, we’ve seen greater traction and impact on our as-a-Service joint business. Thanks to HPE Partner Ready Vantage, enrolled participants have driven hundreds of deals with new customers. It’s all a testament to our partners’ focus and determination to grow their businesses.

We’ll be making ongoing investments in HPE Partner Ready Vantage to ensure partners can continue to strengthen their expertise. If you’re not already a member of the HPE Partner Ready Vantage program, sign up today.

HPE Discover 2024 will help partners be bold in the market

To learn more about these opportunities, and new ones we plan to announce, join us at HPE Discover 2024 in Las Vegas the week of June 17-20, 2024. Partners are encouraged to invite their customers and explore new HPE innovations that will help drive business even further. Registration can be made through the Partner Sales Engagement Platform.

Our strategy of delivering innovation to drive profitability and enhance customer experience is helping our partners continue their strong pace as we jointly grow and capture more market share together. Don’t be left out. Become an HPE partner today. 

 

1  HPE Securities Analyst Meeting 2023, October 2023 

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