HPE Restructuring: New Hybrid Cloud Business Unit, Executive Reassignments, Departures
‘These changes to HPE’s organizational structure and executive leadership, which take effect at the start of our 2024 fiscal year on November 1, 2023, will further unify our portfolio and enhance the delivery of a true cloud experience for our customers and partners,’ said HPE CEO Antonio Neri in a blog post.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is restructuring to accelerate its hybrid cloud sales offensive, creating a new Hybrid Cloud organization that includes the storage business unit.
The reorganization includes several executive departures and reassignments.
First off, the new hybrid cloud business unit will be led by HPE CTO Fidelma Russo, who will be responsible for a business that includes HPE Storage, HPE GreenLake Cloud Services Solutions and the current Office of the CTO, all under the umbrella of the HPE GreenLake platform.
[Related:HPE CEO Antonio Neri On Dell’s ‘Cultural’ And ‘Trust’ Channel Challenge]
As a result of the restructuring, HPE Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Storage Business Unit Tom Black will now report to Russo.
In addition, HPE General Manager of HPE GreenLake and Cloud Solutions Group Vishal Lall, who was No. 18 on CRN’s Top 25 Innovator’s list, is leaving the company, and Senior Vice President and General Manager of HPE Services Pradeep Kumar is retiring.
“These changes to HPE’s organizational structure and executive leadership, which take effect at the start of our 2024 fiscal year on November 1, 2023, will further unify our portfolio and enhance the delivery of a true cloud experience for our customers and partners,” said Neri in a blog post Tuesday. “They will enable tighter integrations that benefit our customers and partners and spark innovation. And, they position us to continue to win in the market.”
The changes come, Neri said, with HPE evolving its operating model to “accelerate our execution” and deliver a “superior customer and partner experience” aimed at driving growth for the company and value for shareholders.
The new Hybrid Cloud business unit will accelerate HPE’s hybrid cloud strategy as it delivers one portfolio of storage, software, data, and cloud services on the HPE GreenLake platform, said Neri.
C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company and one of HPE’s top GreenLake partners, called the restructuring a “bold” move that puts HPE Storage at the forefront of HPE’s hybrid cloud strategy.
“This is an opportunity for the HPE channel to seize more momentum in the hybrid cloud market,” said Howdyshell. “The key for HPE to scale hybrid cloud is to continue to bet big on the channel community.”
Howdyshell said the market is exploding for on-premises pay-per-use hybrid-cloud-as-a-service with offerings like HPE GreenLake. “The customer appetite for everything as a service continues to grow, which represents a significant opportunity for the channel,” he said.
Generative AI, including HPE’s new GreenLake for Large Language Models, is also having a profound impact on channel sales growth, said Howdyshell. “The difference between the winners and losers in generative AI will be channel commitment,” he said.
Cleveland-based Advizex, for its part, has a significant pipeline of generative AI opportunities, said Howdyshell. “In my 20 years in this business, I have never seen this kind of exponential opportunity for the channel,” he said.
Executive Moves
Neri praised Black for leading the storage business through a transformation to a data services business with the introduction of the HPE Alletra portfolio to a storage as a service model.
“I am grateful for his leadership and look forward to the innovation he will drive in this new role to further build out our business in this growing area of the hybrid cloud market,” said Neri.
As for Lall, Neri, said the 10-year HPE and HP veteran will be leaving at the end of the current calendar year.
“Vishal has held a number of leadership positions at HPE and has made numerous contributions during his decade-long career with the company,” said Neri. “His work spanning HPE GreenLake, HPE Aruba, HPE Ezmeral and Hewlett Packard Pathfinder has had significant impact in driving the momentum and market opportunity HPE is now seeing, which puts us in a very strong position moving forward.”
Neri praised Kumar, a 27-year HPE veteran who is retiring, as a “remarkable” leader. With Kumar’s retirement, Neri said, the “key operational activies” for all HPE Services, Supply Chain and Quote to Cash will now fall under HPE Executive Vice President and General Manager of Global Operations Mark Bakker.
“By aligning and optimizing our systems and processes and streamlining the end-to-end customer and partner experience, we will accelerate digital transformation for HPE and our customers,” said Neri.
Neri singled out Russo, who was No. 6 on CRN’s Top 25 innovator’s list, for her leadership overseeing the team that created the HPE GreenLake platform.
“Over the past two years, Fidelma has led the team that created the HPE GreenLake platform, which is now the central offering for all of our Hybrid Cloud solutions, and developed, tested, and integrated new services and launched them on the platform,” said Neri.
Furthermore, Neri said, Russo and her team led the onboarding of OpsRamp, which HPE acquired in May, onto the platform and “created an innovation pipeline that has delivered high-demand services” like the Sustainability Dashboard.
“Fidelma is a customer-centric leader and will continue to bring revolutionary new offerings to bear for our global customers, helping HPE realize our distinct advantage as we pursue opportunities in the hybrid cloud market,” said Neri
Neri said he is confident that HPE can “accomplish anything with the right team guided” by the right leaders. “I believe we have both,” he said. “I am proud of the progress we have made in our transformation to be the edge-to-cloud company. These new strategic alignments will enhance the integrated customer and partner experience, strengthen our market position and accelerate our execution. I look forward to continuing to deliver in ways that only HPE can.”