The cloud and infrastructure divisions of Hewlett-Packard Co. were the big stars during the first day of HP Discover Barcelona, while the software group, in many ways, was less prominent. In their analysis of the event debut, theCUBE co-hosts Dave Vellante and John Furrier debated over the day’s keynote and HP CEO Meg Whitman’s image, the split of the company into two separated Fortune 500 companies, as well as the overall status of HP in the global tech marketplace.

“Great messaging for Meg Whitman on the keynote. She comes across so good, well-scripted, well-polished, every word meticulously chosen, she’s clear,” recalled Furrier.

Vellante pointed out that she was almost on the “too scripted side,” yet she came across as credible and making headway on her promise of turning around HP in five years. Currently at year three, HP is investing heavily in research and development (R&D), with notable innovations such as HP’s cloud software platform Helion, or The Machine, which was described by HP as being a “new type of computer unrestrained from 60 years of computer technology.” “I still feel they are paying the price for the Hurd years, when they were squeezing and chopping R&D,” Vellante said. However, “cash heals all wounds and HP is throwing around a lot of cash right now,” the analyst went on, noting that most of it goes towards paying debts and increasing R&D.

Although both Vellante and Furrier agreed that the split between the two companies, HP Enterprise and HP Inc, each with about $60 billion in revenue, was a good move for the current team and strategy of HP, Furrier stated they should have tried harder to make the synergies work. ”This could cut into [Whitman’s]  turnaround for another year,” he added.

Will HP make the grade?

Grading the current status of HP, Vellante said the “slow turnaround continues. HP is “better than last year, better than June, another tick of the clock. Solid B. To get an A, I want return to growth in some of the strategic areas,” more in the cloud space, a lot of developer momentum.

Furrier was more generous. “ I give them a B+. Great action, one-on-one conversations with the cloud group. The infrastructure group is solid too. I am not getting knocked off my chair with software. It’s not coming across big in the show,” he said.

See the full analysis at the end of day one from HP Discover Barcelona 2014 here:

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