HPE Channel Leader Simon Ewington On HPE’s ‘Unmatched’ Portfolio, ‘Massive’ Partner Opportunity And Post-Juniper-Acquisition ‘Swagger’

“We have got two industry leaders we are pulling together, both recognized as leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for wired and wireless networking but also Juniper in data center networking,” said Ewington. “We now have the opportunity to drive cross-pollination across routing solutions, data center solutions and campus and branch.”

HPE Senior Vice President Worldwide Channel and Partner Ecosystem Leader Simon Ewington says HPE is combining “consistency and predictability” along with an “aggression to go and take share in the market” with its new sales-incentive-packed Partner Ready Vantage program.

In fact, HPE is focused on capturing “the next mountain” rather than “defending the one that we already have” as it moves to drive sales growth in areas like networking, hybrid cloud and compute, said Ewington.

“I think we are in a position today to really take the next hill and mountain and increase share of wallet with partners,” said Ewington. “I think the advantage that partners have always had with HPE is that partnering is in our DNA. I hear that partners feel they trust HPE. We are very consistent in our partnering strategy. Consistency and predictability is as important—if not the most important—thing for partners when they work with a company like HPE.”

The HPE Partner Ready Vantage sales offensive comes with the networking and hybrid cloud powerhouse moving aggressively to capture networking market share against rival Cisco Systems.

The market-share grab is being fueled by HPE’s $13.4 billion acquisition earlier this year of AI and data center networking superstar Juniper Networks along with HPE’s own Aruba AI power campus and branch offering.

The data center networking strength also opens the “opportunity to drive better cross-pollination from networking into compute and into the hybrid cloud with solutions like storage,” said Ewington. “In the past we didn’t really play in data center networking. Now we’ve got the opportunity,” he said.

HPE is also moving to grab share in the virtualization market with its VM Essentials product in the wake of the higher prices and partner terminations that were prompted by Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.

“We want to make a huge push on HPE’s VM Essentials virtualization solution through the partner community,” said Ewington. “We have got a huge amount of excitement. We now need to turn that excitement into hypergrowth in FY 2026, and we are going to enable partners to do that.”

Below is more of CRN’s conversation with Ewington.

What is the message for partners on the new Partner Ready Vantage program?

Ultimately, the message is we are yet again doubling down on partners. There is only upside for partners when they work with HPE. That is really important because since I have been in the role that doubling down is something we try to do every year.

Ultimately in 2026 we are focusing on three things: No. 1 is innovation. Our job is to keep our partners relevant in the industry by giving them innovation so they can help their customers be relevant and ultimately be competitive in the market. No. 2 is expertise, essentially equipping partners with the expertise so they can then sell that innovation and position it with the right tools, the right knowledge and training. No. 3 is margin. That is how we help partners make more margin by leveraging our programs either by selling HPE solutions and wrapping our services around them or—and this is where I think we are unique in the industry—by equipping partners so they can sell their own margin-rich services. So those are the three pillars we have got: innovation, expertise, margin.

What are the innovation priorities HPE is focused on for Fiscal Year 2026?

It’s very difficult to pick your favorite children because there is so much in our portfolio that is really important. But in FY 2026 if I had to pull out some priorities, it would be continuing to scale data solutions or our storage IP, where we have done a phenomenal job with Alletra MP and cyber-resiliency solutions we have like Zerto and StoreOnce.

The second piece is continuing to drive a compute installed base refresh [with Gen12 servers]. We have to get the innovation into the hands of our existing customers.

The third area is around hybrid cloud and software, including VM Essentials. We want to make a huge push on HPE’s VM Essentials virtualization solution through the partner community. We have got a huge amount of excitement. We now need to turn that excitement into hypergrowth in FY 2026, and we are going to enable partners to do that.

Then we have a continued focus on Private Cloud AI. It has been a foundational year for Private Cloud AI in 2025, and we are going to move to hypergrowth in FY 2026.

The last piece is obviously networking. We had our worldwide distribution partner conference in Madrid last week. We had [HPE President and General Manager of Networking] Rami [Rahim] come and address the audience to talk about the opportunities we now have leveraging across our two portfolios.

We have got two industry leaders we are pulling together, both recognized as leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for wired and wireless networking but also Juniper in data center networking. We now have the opportunity to drive cross-pollination across routing solutions, data center solutions, and campus and branch.

Second, we now have got the opportunity to drive better cross-pollination from networking into compute and into the hybrid cloud with solutions like storage. In the past we didn’t really play in data center networking. Now we’ve got the opportunity.

What is the message you want to send to partners with regard to the new sales incentives in the program?

The message to your readers is HPE is not only attractive to the owners of companies, we are now attractive to sellers as well. We are now incenting everybody in the organization to double down on HPE as we are doubling down on partners.

The HPE channel sales incentive budget has traditionally come in at $1 billion. Does the new program represent a marked increase?

It depends on the performance of some of the nascent parts of our portfolio. So a good example would be VM Essentials. It’s a competency for us so we are paying very high rates of 10 percent.

What is the opportunity for single medallion or specialized partners focused on a single competency?

The first thing I would say is it is very attractive for a partner to still be a single medallion partner with HPE, whether that is focused on networking, hybrid cloud or compute.

It is also going to be really attractive for the first time for partners who are very specialized and want to focus on competency adoption.

For the biggest partners, we are asking them obviously to be a Platinum in all three sales centers [with Triple Platinum Plus]. There is a volume threshold for those partners as well, and there are certain certification and investment requirements, and then there is access to a bespoke growth program with HPE, which is a huge opportunity. It is going to be a small list of partners.

Glass globe of North and South America with graph printed documents

So is Triple Platinum Plus limited to the biggest global partners?

We have a lot of partners who are either dedicated to HPE or primarily on HPE. Particularly with North America being such a large portion of our business, I would expect there to be some North America-specific-only partners who have the opportunity to be part of the program. If anyone meets the program requirements, we would be delighted to welcome them in and put the red carpet out for them.

It’s an additional program that we haven’t had before to demonstrate that we are continuing to double down on the partner community.

As you provide the increased incentives, what do you expect from partners?

We’re going to ask for more in return. But the rewards are substantial.

Is this a much more sales-driven program than in the past?

It helps that we have got a portfolio that is unmatched anywhere in the industry. I think the acquisition of Juniper has given us a lot of swagger, and it has made a lot of partners really re-evaluate if they weren’t working with us already, and [it is] also giving the partners who were working with us the opportunity to double down back with us and give them the confidence that we have a portfolio now in the industry that is unmatched by anybody else. We have a massive opportunity, and our partners have a massive opportunity working with HPE as well.

Is this a case of HPE really putting its money where its mouth is?

You are absolutely right. We haven’t changed. We are still the humble HPE that we have always been but maybe with a slight hint of aggression in going to capture the next mountain rather than defending the one that we already have.

I think we are in a position today to really take the next hill and mountain and increase share of wallet with partners. I think the advantage that partners have always had with HPE is that partnering is in our DNA. I hear that partners feel they trust HPE. We are very consistent in our partnering strategy. Consistency and predictability is as important—if not the most important—thing for partners when they work with a company like HPE.

Along with that consistency and predictability is an aggression to go and take share in the market and to help partners share in the gains of achieving that.

What is the message with regard to the opportunity for all kinds of partners with Partner Ready Vantage?

Every partner archetype has a home in Partner Ready Vantage, and every partner has the opportunity to drive very profitable growth with HPE.

Is this the best program you have ever seen?

Yes. … You can tell when something has hit the mark.

It’s always a nervous time when you make adjustments to programs. We know some of our competitors have made some pretty big adjustments that have not gone down particularly well in the last six months.

So there is always a nervousness around all the planning, and the thought process paid off and is going to land as we want it to land. I think we were all very happy, relieved and proud of the feedback we had from partners. Yes, it is change and there are substantial changes here. But partners broadly have embraced the program and the opportunity they are going to have for growth, specialization and the opportunities they have to make money. Because that is what they are in it for: making money.