MSP Cloud

HP Announces CloudSystem Partner Program to Expand Cloud Practices

By Laura Stotler
MSP News™ Contributing Editor

HP has announced a program that will enable its channel partners to quickly capitalize on cloud market opportunities. The HP CloudSystem Partner Program offers tools for partners seeking to build expert cloud practices using HP's broad portfolio.

The program, unveiled at the HP Americas Partner Conference in Las Vegas, provides tools to enable HP partners to evolve their business models and develop cloud-focused skills. This gives them an opportunity to expand their portfolios and increase revenues with cloud solutions that will also transform their customers' businesses.

The program is meant to capitalize on the growing cloud market opportunity, projected to grow to $143 billion by 2013, according to HP internal analysis. The CloudSystem portfolio gives partners the tools to build and manage integrated cloud solutions across private, public and hybrid cloud environments. The program offers channel partners a number of resources including the Cloud Centers for Excellence demonstration sites, training, the Cloud Enablement program, PartnerONE incentives and cloud professional services.

The Cloud Centers for Excellence aid channel partners in transforming their facilities into cloud demonstration sites. The centers build on the HP Converged Infrastructure architecture and combine the HP CloudSystem Matrix and Cloud Service Automation software for unified building and management of cloud services. Partners also have the option of adding HP networking products like the TippingPoint security offerings and HP 3PAR Utility Storage solutions.

HP also helps partners build cloud ecosystems through independent software vendor applications for specific customer needs and markets. Partners have access to HP Cloud Maps, comprised of tested and proven configurations for applications like Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange. Configurations may be imported directly into CloudSystem for rapid build out of cloud service catalogs.

“The Cloud Center of Excellence gives customers insight into the benefits of cloud, such as accelerated service delivery and operational efficiency,” said Marc Sarazin, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing at AdvizeX Technologies, based in Burlington, Mass. “As a result, we are able to play a strategic role in helping customers transform their business, increase revenue streams and expand opportunities in new areas.”

“Our partners play a strategic role in building and delivering cloud solutions for customers,” said Frank Rauch, vice president of Channel Sales, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP. “Working with HP, channel partners can quickly build cloud practices today and develop new business models that take advantage of the massive cloud opportunity moving forward.”