Breaking up, as Neil Sedaka sang, is hard to do. It also takes time, particularly when it involves cleaving a Fortune 15 company in two. There have been few details about the breakup of Hewlett-Packard Co., which was originally announced last October. What the split means for the future of HP, its partners and customers will be a focus of the company’s tentpole show this week at HP Discover.

Hewlett-Packard Co.’s split into two companies – Hewlett-Packard Inc. with the PC and desktop/office

Dave Vellante at HP Discover 2014.

printers and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the servers, storage, networking and its Helion cloud – is difficult but necessary says Wikibon co-founder and Chief Analyst David Vellante. These two companies have entirely different product portfolios with little synergy and different futures.

“They’ve got a bifurcated business selling printers and ink on the one hand and then they turn around and sell Superdome [servers] on the other,” he said. “That’s a really funky portfolio.

“HP, Inc. is a leader in a mature hardware market. Its a steady cash generator and safe investment for those looking for regular dividends, but there are few opportunities for growth,” Vellante said. “HP Enterprise is intended to be the growth engine in a market that is in the process of radical transformation pushed by the impact of cloud, Big Data and flash storage.”

The problem, Vellante said, is that right now at least HP’s business there “is not growing.”

Part of the problem is the disruption and distraction caused by the corporate breakup. This will undoubtedly be a major subject of discussion at HP Discover and on theCUBE, which will provide three days of live webcast coverage starting Tuesday, June 2 at 9:00 A.M. PDT (noon EDT). Viewers can watch at SiliconANGLE Media’s new HP Discover Social site, which also provides several interactive features including a life leaderboard of the most influential people at the conference.

One question that is still unsettled nearly eight months after the split was announced is which senior executives will go with which company. For, example, HP CFO Cathie Lesjak was originally expected to stay with HP Enterprise, but now she is going to go with HP, Inc. HP Enterprise Group CFO Tim Stonesifer will become CFO of HP Enterprise. “I’m happy that they are promoting from within,” Vellante said. “HP is a complex company, and executives with experience inside it are less likely to make changes that might break something.”

The problem is that all of this uncertainty is distracting management from the important issue of transforming what will be HP Enterprise into what HP calls a “new IT” company, Vellante said. One indication of that: HP’s Helion Cloud, which has been a major strategic initiative for the company, was hardly mentioned during the quarterly earnings call on May 21.

So one more major question that HP executives need to answer is what the future holds for Helion and other enterprise bright spots such as Vertica (which also was not mentioned on the earnings call), the Moonshot and 3PAR storage line. HP also needs to define how it will build out an ecology of new technologies, either developed internally or purchased, particularly around Vertica for Big Data.

“HP doesn’t have enough shiny new toys in its portfolio to offset the decline in the old stuff,” said

Stu Miniman: “I hope the focus of attention will be on all the hot stuff … .I want to hear proof points that HP has got the capabilities, the technology, the portfolio and the customer momentum to actually deliver on those promises.”

Vellante. Its leaders need to talk about how they are positioning HP Enterprise to make a leap forward toward building a growth portfolio once the reorganization is finished.

In a pre-HP Discover interview with Wikibon Analyst Stuart Miniman on theCUBE  (embedded below), Vellante said that once HP executives finish explaining how the split is going and what it means for customers, “I hope the focus of attention will be on all the hot stuff – cloud, taking systems of record and systems of engagement and overlaying systems of intelligence, and delivering infrastructure to support all those mobile apps….I want to hear proof points that HP has got the capabilities, the technology, the portfolio and the customer momentum to actually deliver on those promises.”

HP Discover should provide a measure of progress at what is arguably the most critical juncture in HP’s 76-year history, when the IT industry is in the process of moving from the old style server, storage and network technologies to converged systems, software dominance, and the cloud. If you can’t attend, watch the action on theCUBE. Highlights on the schedule include interviews with:

• HP WorldWide Technology Services Consulting Senior VP and General Manager Johan Deschuyffeleer;
• HP Senior VP and General Manager of Converged Data Center Infrastructure Ric Lewis;
• HP Senior VP of Storage Manish Goel;
• HP Senior VP and General Manager of Servers Alain Andreoli; and
• VP of Worldwide Marketing Craig Nunes.

TheCUBE will also broadcast the general sessions live on Tuesday and Wednesday, where HP CEO Meg Whitman and other senior executives will report on progress and plans for the future.

Photo via HP Enterprise on Flickr