From a storage perspective, Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at Taneja Group, says HP is in good shape moving forward. He says both the 3PAR and LeftHand Networks-based product lines continue to gain market share, especially in VM environments, and is probably holding its own with the XP product line that is OEMed from HDS. "Architecturally, the 3PAR and LHN-based products are superior to their main competitor. The MSA and EVA will probably need to be replaced in the near future, but a lot of their functionality is available in the LHN product line," Taneja says. "So at the array level, I think HP is fine at the moment."
Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Inc., offered a tongue-in-cheek perspective, saying HP has a "huge" perception issue on its hands, and is seen to be "horribly positioned" right now.
"Here's the thing, however: While HP seems to be lurching from one corporate disaster to another--and clearly, all its competitors are doing everything to encourage the 'blood in the water' perception--the enterprise world doesn't move that fast," he says. "HP remains fundamentally strong, with an improving enterprise product set, plenty of committed customers and a capable management team. If HP can get--and keep--its act together, I think it will remain both relevant and dangerous. No guarantees of course, but I suspect we're currently judging a battle and not a full war. The 'Historical Perspective' of this period will be fascinating."
The turmoil caused by the sort of layoffs and reorganization HP is going through tends to be short-lived, suggests Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research. "There are obvious problems in HP enterprise product organizations, especially BCS [Business Critical Systems--the Itanium server group] that could be affected by the reorg, but I doubt that layoffs will greatly improve the situation," he says. "Overall, HP will probably decide Discover has succeeded if it comes away from Las Vegas having quelled most of the concerns of major customers, developers and partners."
Get more analyst advice for HP in part 2, "Analysts: HP Must Communicate Strategy at HP Discover, Then Execute. Learn more about Research: 2012 State of the Data Center by subscribing to Network Computing Pro Reports (free, registration required).
