Cisco vs HP 2014: Dinner With Meg, John & The VAR Guy?
Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are set to host rival 2014 partner summits the week of March 24 in Las Vegas. Both events are part of The VAR Guy’s Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences for 2014. Memo to Cisco CEO John Chambers and HP CEO Meg Whitman: Care to meet for dinner in Sin City — all together? The VAR Guy will pick up the tab. Here’s what we can discuss…
First up, let’s talk CEO succession plans:
- John, Cisco has been evaluating a range of candidates to eventually succeed you. The VAR Guy keeps spreading rumors that Rob Lloyd and Chuck Robbins are the leading candidates. Can you offer any updated clues?
- Meg, you’ve previously told The VAR Guy that (A) you are committed to HP for the long haul and (B) your successor should be an internal HP employee. Any clues as to who is on your shortlist?
Now, let’s talk about the overall IT market and where channel partners fit in…
- John, Meg: Do you see overall enterprise and service provider spending improving in 2014? And what role will channel partners play in the enterprise push?
Hey, let’s talk dead products for a second…
- Meg, John: Your companies both killed home grown tablets (HP TouchPad, Cisco Cius) in recent years. What did the failed tablet moves teach you about corporate IT and consumer IT buying, competition and the road ahead?
Next up, how about next-generation technologies…
- John, Meg: How is the software-defined networking (SDN) market shaping up? Any partner and customer momentum yet?
- John: Cisco recently acquired Insieme and launched the application-centric infastructure (ACI) push. How are the partner programs shaping up for ACI and who are the early adopters?
- Both: How will the overall networking, server and storage landscapes evolve amid all the SDN and software defined data center hype?
Next up, recurring revenue…
- Meg: HP has been building out a range of recurring revenue businesses — including SaaS applications, HP Cloud and Autonomy. But HP’s most recent earnings didn’t say much about momentum in those areas. Any updates?
- John: Will Cisco remain mainly a supplier to service providers, or will Cisco itself need to accelerate its march toward recurring revenue services?
Finally, make me choose…
- Meg, John: My business needs to work with fewer, more strategic IT vendors in 2014. Why should I choose your business — over the other person at this dinner table — as my strategic partner for 2014?
That’s it for now. The VAR Guy has plenty of additional questions — if you’re both willing to stick around for dessert.
PS: Is that Tech Data at the table next to us? The VAR Guy hears they’re also in town — for the Tech Data TDcloud Summit…