IBM Allies With Sector7 To Snare HP E3000 Customers

When Hewlett-Packard decided to phase out its 30-year-old HP e3000 server family last November, IBM saw it as a golden opportunity.

"There are a lot of synergies between the iSeries and the HP 3000," said Buell Duncan, general manager of midmarket servers for the IBM server group.

To help them win over HP customers, IBM tapped migration specialist Sector7, a solution provider based in Austin, Texas, that offers an array of migration services including HP 3000 MPE to Linux/Unix, VAX/Alpha VMS/ OpenVMS to Windows, Unix/ Linux or IBM iSeries and zSeries.

Jon Power, Sector7 CEO, said HP's decision to phase out development of the e3000 series came at a perfect time, as companies closely watch IT spending during a tough economy.

"In a difficult market, migration is a boom-time business," he said. "A lot of companies don't want to spend and would rather consolidate [servers."

HP, for its part, is fighting to keep current e3000 customers in the fold. Sales of e3000 systems with enhancements will continue through October 2003, HP said. And the platform will be supported through 2006.

"Our goal is to keep 100 percent [of current e3000 customers," said Christine Martino, HP's worldwide marketing manager for the e3000. "The easiest and most cost-effective option for customers is to stay with HP."

IBM's alliance with Sector7 is part of a continuing battle to fuel growth in the vendor's enterprise systems sales. IBM enterprise systems sales dropped 2.6 percent in 2001 to $14.5 billion compared with sales of $14.8 billion in 2000.

KELLEY DAMORE contributed to this story.