HPE Discover: HPE Cites Enterprise Channel as Key to Nvidia Partnership

HPE DISCOVER — The reason HPE is going all-in with Nvidia on its generative artificial intelligence (AI) stack is obvious. Nvidia is the AI hardware vendor of choice for all major IT players because of its GPUs and AI software.

But what does HPE bring to Nvidia that prompted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to join HPE CEO Antonio Neri on stage for the first IT keynote session at the Las Vegas Sphere? According to Jesse Chavez, HPE VP of channel partner programs and operations, HPE’s enterprise customers set it apart from its rivals — from Nvidia’s standpoint.

“We are making a bet with Nvidia,” Chavez said. “Typically, we don't integrate as heavily [with partners]. Maybe we did with the Microsofts or the VMwares in the world is in the past, but even with alliances with Intel and AMD, we don't get integrated this deeply.”

HPE's Jesse Chavez

HPE representatives frequently point out that the new HPE Private Cloud AI is co-engineered with Nvidia. Private Cloud AI, the first product of the Nvidia AI Computing by HPE platform, is a turnkey solution rather than a reference architecture that Dell and others have announced.

Chavez said there is another difference between HPE and competitors.

“I think the reason that Nvidia is excited to partner with us, and they’ve been pushing us for the last couple of years, is because our space has been the enterprise,” he said. “That’s where this market is moving. The opportunity is going to be in the enterprise. The majority of partners we have are selling into the enterprise; that’s the channel we have. And in my opinion, it's the channel that Super Micro and Dell have always envied. Nvidia recognized that, and we recognize that.”

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HPE Discover 2024: Channel Partner Reaction

Stephen Moss, SVP of managed services at Insight Enterprises, said as a close HPE partner, he welcomed the Nvidia news.

Insight's Stephen Moss

“We already all know who Nvidia is, and when you start looking at the combination of the two and how they’re bringing that together in one space, it probably simplifies how the market approaches [AI],” he said. “It should accelerate what I would call the hybridized specifics.”

Brian Spivey, managing partner at IT services and consulting firm Technical & Scientific Application (TSA), said he has already found the HPE-Nvidia partnership “extremely powerful for us as we go to market with them.”

“The HPE partnership with Nvidia is extremely strong, and you’re seeing more and more solutions come together around that,” Spivey said. “So whether your customer’s doing generative AI, large language model, or we've even been looking at computer vision options, Nvidia has been a key player across all of those. We see the partnership benefiting our end users.”

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HPE’s channel chiefs also vow to give partners plenty of help around generative AI and Nvidia technology with AI workshops, competency programs and certifications.

Simon Ewington, HPE VP of worldwide channel and partner ecosystem, said even if partners recognize the opportunities of generative AI, education is necessary.

“Not every partner knows how to grasp that opportunity,” he said. “Not every partner knows where to start. Not every partner knows the tangible steps to take. And we want to help partners. We want them to better understand these steps, and that is why we will be taking control and we will deliver AI leadership in the channel.”

Chavez said HPE and Nvidia will combine their enablement programs into common workshops supporting generative AI. HPE will hold five-day workshops with two days focusing on Nvidia certifications and three on HPE certifications.

“In order to sell to our channel community, we have to have an enablement program that supports the enterprise,” he said. “It gets pretty heavy. You have to be able to do hands-on, you have to do labs. That's what our customers expect. That's what our partners expect — to grow mastery through certifications of everything that we do.”