HPE's Richardson On The 100 Percent Nimble, SimpliVity Channel Pledge

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Channel Chief Terry Richardson, who recently added U.S. distribution to his duties, spoke with CRN about the company's 100 percent channel pledge for Nimble and SimpliVity, the commitment to distribution and the Cisco partner grab.

Richardson, who was voted as what amounts to the most popular channel chief in the industryas the winner of CRN's 2017 Channel Madness competition, says the 100 percent channel commitment is in sharp contrast to Dell EMC's "customer choice" model.

"There is no customer choice," he said. "It is a 100 percent indirect play which we think is important for our channel partners domestically and around the world to understand. Our plan for SMB is 100 percent channel and we are unwavering in that commitment. It is an important market strategy that goes to the top of HPE."

What's more, Richardson said the Nimble SimpliVity pledge partner offensive takes direct aim at Cisco. "A lot of their success really grew up on what I would describe as the backs of the traditional legacy Cisco partner base," he said. "Those partners were wise in choosing those technologies. Now that both those companies are part of HPE what I have seen is a real shift in interest from those partners not only continuing the relationship with SimpliVity and Nimble but getting more interested in HPE."