HPE’s Jeremiah Jenson On Incenting Growth Across The Portfolio, Net-New Logos And Capitalizing On Broadcom-VMware ‘Disruption’

HPE North America Channel Chief Jeremiah Jenson talks with CRN about his return to HPE after seven years at AWS, his top priorities in the new job and the HPE market opportunity created by the Broadcom-VMware market disruption.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise North America Vice President of Channel and Partner Ecosystem Jeremiah Jenson is making “growth across the portfolio” a top priority with a focus on net-new logos.

“You can’t have growth without net-new logos,” said Jenson in an interview with CRN. “It could be a compute customer that recognizes the value in our storage portfolio. It could be how we take an Aruba customer at the edge and sell them more compute or how do we take someone buying compute and bring them into Private Cloud AI or some of the GreenLake solutions. That is growth for us. We can’t do that without net-new logos.”

Jenson said given the tremendous investments HPE has made in offerings like the Alletra MP storage portfolio or VM Essentials it is critical that partners take them to market and sell across the portfolio with a focus on net-new logos.

“It is absolutely the case that we should be acquiring customers faster than we should be acquiring revenue,” he said. “The value proposition is there. We are going to grow [revenue and net-new logos]. With regard to how we incent partners around that [priority], there is more to come. Not all the details of the [new Partner Ready Vantage] program are public yet. As those details come out, that is a key piece [of the new program].”

Jenson’s comments come even as HPE prepares to roll out effective Nov. 1 a new Triple Platinum Plus medallion aimed at getting more of its largest transactional partners to sell the complete HPE networking, compute and hybrid cloud portfolio.

In an interview with CRN, Jenson spoke about on his return to HPE after seven years at AWS, his top priorities in the new job and the market opportunity created by the Broadcom- VMware market disruption.

Here is more of CRN’s interview with Jenson.

What is the message you want to send to partners as you take the helm since returning to the company after seven years at AWS?

This is a different HPE. There is such an opportunity for us to grow collectively and for the power of partnerships to really become real at the customer level. That is why I am so excited to be back. We have a company that is very committed to partnerships and a portfolio that is industry-leading and is focused on the right place. There is a big opportunity for partners to grow across the full portfolio, to impact customers in a positive way, and to really drive accretive growth for where we are going.

Now is the right time to be an HPE partner, and now is the right time for us to really go to market aggressively together across the portfolio.

What were the key factors in your decision to return to HPE?

Our commitment at HPE to partners was part of it. Partners are part of our DNA. They are part of our history. They are part of what has built this company. They are a part of the growth of this company. That starts at the top down.

The relationships I have with partners and their desire to win with HPE made a big difference as well. The partners themselves made a difference in my return to HPE. Their desire to win with HPE made a difference to me.

What other factors played a role in your decision to return to HPE?

The first thing I did before I talked to partners was I looked at the portfolio and the moves that HPE and [HPE President and CEO] Antonio [Neri] (pictured) made in terms of bringing Aruba into the portfolio and bringing the data from the edge all the way to the data center with the GreenLake platform and the changes made there.

And then there is AI; PC AI is a really big deal. That was interesting and very, very compelling. The turnkey AI factory product and what we are doing there is very real.

I also talked to partners, and they told me they want to win with HPE and we want to win with them. You put our compelling industry-leading platform and our history of partnerships together and that makes for a tremendous opportunity for us to grow much faster than the market.

How big is the AI opportunity and how are you going to work in North America to fuel that growth?

There are opportunities across the full portfolio, but I don’t think you can have a conversation today without talking about AI. That is one of the three core pillars of our strategy. It is absolutely critical to where we are going. It is one of the largest opportunities that we have.

There are other massive opportunities around hybrid IT and networking as well. But it is such a fast-paced moving piece of the market.

Six months ago, customers used to say AI was an emerging priority. We are past that. It is a priority. It is no longer an emerging priority. It is a priority. If you look at the announcements we are making and the fantastic things we are bringing together like the turnkey AI factory, [we’re] making it very real and easy for customers to stand up these environments for their business, working with the capability and value-add of partners. If we are not talking about Private Cloud AI and all the solutions we are bringing to market and co-developing with our other partners, we are missing a massive opportunity. It is a huge opportunity for us.

How big a deal is the GreenLake Intelligence Agentic AI Framework opportunity?

The thing that is really compelling about what we are doing with hybrid IT—the second pillar of our portfolio—is that is the way customers want to buy. It is not an all-public or all- private-cloud world. It is not just one or the other. So building agentic AI into all of the products is the biggest signal to the market in terms of how big the opportunity is. It is built into the storage platform with the Alletra MP 10000. It is built into the fabric of what we are doing with networking. Building into the products is a key proof point as to how big an opportunity this is and what customers are demanding. Candidly, I don’t know that there is anyone else that can provide that from the edge to the cloud.

How big a game-changer is the Triple Platinum Plus medallion in the new unified Partner Ready Vantage program?

The first thing I would highlight there is that we listen to partners. We take their feedback personally and then we build that into the changes we make to the program. We had 11 different programs, and we consolidated that down to one. That is a direct proof point to what partners have told us—there is a level of complexity, and they would like to see some simplification. Kudos to the worldwide team and to the programs team in terms of what we are delivering to partners. That simplification first and foremost is really important—one program across multiple different stacks, different competencies. We are providing the opportunity for partners to be recognized for both their specialist and broad capabilities. It does both of those things because not all partners have the same level of capability or the same level of focus. So we can now recognize a partner for the AI competency and the great work they are doing there because of the AI conversation. Also, we want to look at the great work other partners are doing around, for example, networking. When a partner that has capability across the full portfolio, Triple Platinum Plus should be a keystone moment for our top partners with the earnings opportunity. As those details become available, you will see it is a very compelling offering with a level of simplicity that allows partners to go faster. Because that is what we want. We have to grow faster.

How big a boost could Triple Platinum Plus be when you look at what Cisco is doing with their program?

Cisco is going to do what Cisco is going to do. We’re really focused on the opportunity that we have, and that opportunity is right there in front of us. I don’t want to get distracted.

How big a moment do you see this being for the HPE channel in terms of an inflection point to grow and make money?

The moment in time that we’re in right now is one of those moments in time where there’s a lot of things happening at the same time that present partner opportunity, and we have to capitalize on them right now.

The VMware-Broadcom change has created a lot of disruption in the market. Customers are looking for thought leadership from partners in how to get them from where they are to where they want to go. That is the moment we are in with this agentic AI and hybrid cloud era. Customers need the help of partners to get there.

We’ve got the right program: simplified, consolidated, easier for partners to navigate with customers. We have a fantastic portfolio that is designed around the way customers want to buy with everything from networking and keeping your data secure all the way to hybrid IT because customers want the flexibility with AI. What bigger opportunity is there than if you bring it all together and then provide all the supporting underpinnings of that?

You want velocity movement. Look at the changes we made with Smart Choice, enhancing Smart Choice adding in storage with MSA [Storage] and VME [VM Essentials].

The VME opportunity with the enhancements we have made and how far we have come with that product with the road map, that is fantastic. As customers consider alternatives to their virtualization plans, what better opportunity than to bring all of that together? That is what we are hearing from customers in terms of the way they want to buy and the solutions that they need as well as supporting partners.

What is your message to partners with regard to where they commit their technical and sales resources to build out new architectures in the AI era in terms of margin and resources?

We take our partnerships very seriously, and we are very sincere in how we partner. Partnerships are part of our DNA. I don’t think it is hyperbole to say we understand this is how these businesses feed their children. So we take these partnerships very seriously.

So think about the opportunity for where customers want to go in terms of providing not only the capability in painting a vision for the future but then being able to execute against that right now.

We have turnkey AI factory now. We have the reach from the edge all the way to the most complex workloads in the data center. We have that now. And we have the capability to take [partners and customers] from where they are now to where they want to go in the future. There is no other company with our level of portfolio and partner commitment and the level of program to support them where they need to go.

In all your years in the channel, have you ever seen a situation like the one created by Broadcom-VMware? What is your message to partners on that situation?

My message is customers are looking at the best thing for their business. They have got to make some decisions on who can they trust and who they can work with and who will continue to help them run their business. We see an opportunity as customers look for alternatives to do all those things: help them consolidate, help them have the right solution with the ability to continue to operate their business with the flexibility they desire but with the right level of cost versus benefit.

There are great customer outcomes in terms of cost savings and technical outcomes. But there is also a level of trust in that HPE has a storied history of taking care of our customers in the right way.

It’s not just a licensing opportunity in this moment. It is an opportunity to look at the customer’s total IT real estate with VME and some of the tools we are bringing to bear with Morpheus. We are also supporting partners by giving them tools to do the right level of assessments to get to that customer outcome, the migration tools, and all the other things we are doing. We are putting it out there as fast as we possibly can because customers need our help to get to where they need to go, whether that is cost savings or consolidation or both. It’s a $4 billion opportunity with 90 percent cost savings and reliability and commitment for the future both in terms of the partners and solutions we bring to market.

What has been the biggest surprise since you rejoined the company?

One of the most pleasant surprises is as I was talking to people around the company and the partners, I knew we had a strong commitment to partners but exactly how real that was became apparent.

When I look at [HPE North America Managing Director] Paul [Hunter] (pictured) and the leadership team starting with Antonio on down, I know our commitment to partners is real. I don’t know if I would call that a surprise. It was really rewarding to see exactly how sincere that is and where that has come from.

The other piece of this is just how fast things have moved and the pace of innovation at HPE. This time last year we had a slightly different storage portfolio. Also, look at VME. It is very real now with a very robust road map for where we are going because the opportunity is so big. The pace at which innovation has moved is a pleasant surprise.

The real innovation in impacting customers in a positive way is very different.

What are your top priorities given the feedback you have gotten from partners?

I would say simplification is a clear priority. I think we have a real opportunity with a broad portfolio with a tremendous amount of capability. We have to simplify that message. Partners do a really good job of that for us. So we want to be really clear in what are our priorities and where we’re going.

Growth is a is a clear priority. Growth across the portfolio is another clear priority. Continued excellence in partnering [is another clear priority] Also predictability. Partners like to invest in things where there’s a predictable outcome and a predictable future against that.

So it’s really important to me as I take some of their messages internally [to the team] that we’re predictable in how we partner [with them in the field] and in the [partner] program. If partners know what they can expect from us, they will invest. We have a great portfolio for them to invest in. And if we have a predictable go-to-market and a predictable partnership with them, they will continue to invest more.

I always like to look at leading indicators. If I could offer one tip to partners it is let’s get the leading indicators right: how are we acquiring customers, how are we acquiring net-new logos faster than we are growing revenue.

What is the plan to acquire net-new logos working with partners?

There will be predictable change, but we certainly want to incent partners in the areas of priorities, and net-new logos are a part of that.

It is really important to us given all the investments we’ve made that we take those [new offerings and services] to customers. Because it is absolutely the case that we should be acquiring customers faster than we should be acquiring revenue. The value proposition is there. We are going to grow both [revenue and net-new logos]. With regard to how we incent partners around that [priority], there is more to come. Not all the details of the [new Partner Ready Vantage] program are public yet. As those details come out, that is a key piece [of the new program].

How big a priority is it for partners to acquire net-new logos?

Growth across the portfolio is one of the top three priorities that we have. You can’t have growth without net-new logos. It could be a compute customer that recognizes the value in our storage portfolio. It could be how we take an Aruba customer at the edge and sell them more compute or how do we take someone buying compute and bring them into Private Cloud AI or some of the GreenLake solutions. That is growth for us. We can’t do that without net-new logos.

What’s kind of the low-hanging fruit in terms of getting partners to drive growth?

The way I look at it from a low-hanging fruit standpoint is we do have an opportunity to cross-sell. Look at agentic AI, which goes across the full portfolio.

One of the low-hanging fruit areas, frankly, is storage with the Alletra MP. If you are not selling that today, your customer is missing an opportunity to take advantage of the value that product offers. That is an area of low-hanging fruit.

I would challenge partners to tell us where we can help you grow with a piece of the portfolio that you are not working with today. We are very interested in helping you grow in that new area of the portfolio. That is an area where we want to enable and train

A good proof point of that is what we are doing around AI. I would say it’s a new muscle that a lot of partners are exercising. Look at some of the announcements that we made around AI and how we are enabling partners with new training classes, new certification classes and a new competency that we announced. There is real work that needs to be done there. That is an area we are investing in with our partners to help them capture that opportunity.

How important are the new HPE Financial Services incentives, including the 10 percent discount on Alletra MP?

It is not lost on me that out of the 10 awards that we gave away at Partner Growth Summit, one of those was for the top HPE Financial Services Partner of the Year. So Financial Services is a really critical part of how we solve for what customers need [to be successful].

Not only are there good incentives for customers, but it provides a level of flexibility that customers want, especially in unpredictable economic times. It is a great lever for us to use to solve customer problems. That’s where partners can be compensated.

What is your philosophy in terms of helping partners in the sales trenches?

Sales alignment and field alignment is a clear priority for me internally. What it means for partners is more people showing up at their offices co-selling with them and going to market together with them. It’s about understanding the partner capability and being able to bring that to the customer in the right places.

Actually, it started in storage. We have a really good, focused plan around how we get some of our storage sellers in a very measured and methodical approach to the business to show up with co-selling opportunities to work with our partners. We’re taking that across the portfolio.

I would also call out one other really positive thing. One thing that is really exciting about Aruba is the sales alignment is really, really strong. So there are a lot of really good things we can do there to connect more of the portfolio. That is a growth opportunity for us. But it starts with field alignment. It starts with sellers sitting down with sellers discussing joint opportunities and us bringing something to the table beyond the portfolio and them bringing something to the table beyond the capability of a relationship with their value-add and their services. That creates magic for the customer. So we are very, very focused on how to do that. Are we measuring the right things? Are those things producing the right results? Where they are we want to celebrate that and do more of that and where they are not let’s understand and tweak the plan to make sure we get the right results.

What the message to partners on the changes partners might see under Jeremiah Jenson?

I don’t know that it is a change, but it is about us being much more customer-focused. It’s about how do we get the right outcome at the customer level through the power of our partnership. That is really important.

I want more of our people—whether that is channel individuals or end-user sales teams— co-selling with our partners at the customer level, driving joint opportunities and accelerating those at a pace that is beyond where we are today. It has to be accelerated at pace and at scale. I have to do that across North America—the largest market in the world. I don’t know if that’s a change or if it is just an acceleration of pace and an acceleration of focus with HPE people and partners.

Isn’t it about being sales-oriented rather than just engineering-oriented?

I have great confidence in the products that we engineer and what we build. I have the ultimate belief in what we engineer and develop. We have an opportunity to continue to sell that and match up what the customer needs with the value of the product that we have engineered.