HPE Discover Partner View With Nth Generation's Rich Baldwin

Diana Blass

June 21, 2018, 05:07 PM EDT

HPE launched a number of new solutions during its HPE Discover conference in Las Vegas this week, winning the approval from partners like Nth Generation’s Rich Baldwin.

’In the past, it’s been more about product, but each year there’s more and more focus on solutions for various business units and industries and it’s exciting,’ said Baldwin, chief strategy officer at Nth Generation, an IT consulting and engineering firm in Southern California.

On Tuesday, HPE Aruba debuted a software-defined branch solution to help enterprises manage their networks across many locations. Called SD Branch, the solution combines new branch gateways and headend gateways with existing HPE Aruba technology, including ClearPass policy management software, to form an integrated SD-WAN, WLAN, LAN and security solution that offers context, affordability and flexibility that make the system a powerful opportunity for partners.

’In terms of mobile or wireless computing, really Aruba is the leader and they keep enhancing that leadership with things like this SD-WAN offering,’ said Baldwin. ’What’s really neat about that is it’s something you can use your existing hardware and existing access points and just add a little bit new software functionality, which really allows you to do more with less.’

Baldwin also weighed in on the new GreenLake Flex Capacity offering for partners. The GreenLake Flex Capacity channel compensation model provides partners with a whopping five times the rebate incentive that they would get in a traditional Capex deal.

’They finally have gotten the program right,’ said Baldwin. ’We just closed a 1.2 million dollar GreenLake deal just last week. We worked on it over a year. At the end of the day, it took getting not only the IT department, but basically the senior leadership and even the board. It was a fair amount of work, but everybody sees the value in this new flexible type of hybrid offering.’

For Baldwin’s full interview at HPE Discover, watch CRNtv’s video.