theCUBE co-hosts traveled to Barcelona for the HP Discover 2013 event, broadcasting several keynotes live and interviewing some of the biggest names in the tech world. One of them was Kevin Garrison, Director of Go to Market with HP Converged Systems, whose role at HP is to supervise the converged system route to market, building out the regional business unit structure, focusing on the channel for the HP Converged Infrastructure group.

Channel Objectives and Sharks?

Vellante informed the viewers that Garrison was brought in to sharpen and emphasize the channel focus, then asked: “What are your main objectives with the channel?”

“Before the Converged Systems, Converged Virtualization and other extended components of that family (who were just announced this week), the state of the channel was having people asking what those were; nowadays, post-announcement, the best quote I found was ‘It was about time’. It’s an element of excitement,” said Garrison, describing the vibe. Talking about his three months working experience with HP, Garrison explained: “The reason I was brought in was to create a profitability model for the partners, so that they would want to engage and sell.”

During the HP Discover conference, Tom Joyce, Sr VP and GM with HP Converged Systems, announced the new HP Converged System for Virtualization, a solution designed to “free IT from the complexity of technology integration”. Vellante demanded more details: “What exactly is Sharks?” he asked.

“Sharks is taking existing components, the best of breed in HP Server and Blade technology, 3PAR and other storage technology and the connectivity products provided by HP Networking and delivering those as an integrated solution and package. There are three axes that create strong differentiations:

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1) the systems themselves are workload optimized; for a given workload of VMs or for exchange mailboxes, what is the infrastructure required and how can we optimize that to deliver maximum performance capability for the cost associated with that?

2) integrated management – with more announcements in the next six months

3) providing a unique customer support experience.

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Customers are used to buying multiple products – from HP alone or from HP and others – having a serious problem when it came to system maintenance. With the Sharks platform it’s one person, one phone call away, that is only available with the Converged Systems platforms, and it has huge value to the customers, even to the partners,” said Garrison.

To clarify, Vellante enumerated what Sharks actually involves: HP Blades server, 3PAR storage, HP Networking, OneView, and hypervizor. “Does OneView come packaged?”

“In the first iteration we’re going with Insight Control, because it has management capabilities for all three. Today OneView stands out in its server and rack mounting virtual connect integration capabilities. In the not too distant future you’ll see storage and network integrated into that, so from a single management view you have the ability to not only manage the entire environment, but also easily simplify the configuration. OneView has some great customer references,” bragged Garrison. “OneView development is part of the Converged Systems.”

Money-wise, “with Sharks all the pre-integration work has been done for you. From a partner’s perspective, that’s not billable hours they’re losing, those are expense dollars that they’re saving, because those guys can be redeployed to other uses,” explained Garrison. “It takes 5 minutes to order and 20 to configure and quote. From the date of the order until it is fully operational, it takes 20 days. The old process involved from 45 to 60 days.”

Advantages of Converged Systems: the elapsed time from purchase to installation is cut down in half or even in third compared to previous versions and working hours are freed. HP Sharks is either a fixed configuration or a flexible, fully customizable one. This business is everchanging. “Everyday we have to earn the business with our partners,” confessed Garrison. “Sharks in particular helps us do that, because I can sell the value proposition of a Converged Systems solution, which is very distinct and unique.”