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Red Hat Partner Conference: General Session Day Two
Red Hat opened day two of its partner conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a focus on how team building is essential to overcoming adversity in all walks of life.
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Red Hat Public Sector Vice President and General Manager Paul Smith says Red Hat acknowledges that "the ecosystem does matter."
Red Hat (RHT) opened day two of its partner conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. with a focus on how team building is essential to overcoming adversity in all walks of life.
HP (HPQ) executive and guest speaker Erik Weihenmayer, the first first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, was among the presenters.
Here are a few other highlights from Red Hat’s morning sessions:
Red Hat Public Sector Vice President and General Manager Paul Smith (with general comments)
Smith told partners that “the ecosystem does matter” to Red Hat.
As the market moves with cloud management, there will be even more confusion, he said, adding that partners can assist with this challenge.
“It’s really a relationship sell at the customer level, and that’s where partners come into play,” Smith said.
He also plugged Red Hat Summit, which will take place in San Francisco, Calif. from April 14-17, 2014.
HP Industry Standard Servers and Software Americas Director David Gaston (on how HP is working with Red Hat and partners)
Five weeks ago, HP announced new converged systems because HP’s customers have spoken, Gaston said.
HP customers have said that they want to get out of the hardware integration business, he said.
Gatson admitted that partners find HP complex, but the company is working on it.
HP is focusing on increased margins, faster time-to-revenue, increased net-new customers, expanding within existing customers, and driving high-margin services sales, he noted.
HP is the number two contributor to Open Stack, but Red Hat is number one, Gatson said.
Guest Speaker Erik Weihenmayer (on how to overcome adversity)
Anything is possible doesn’t take into account the barriers in life, Weihenmayer said.
Campers are those individuals who reach a certain degree of success in the mountain and say that this is good enough, he said.
Climbers are those individuals who continue to grow, innovate and evolve to challenge themselves until the day they die, Weihenmayer said.
Think about your vision, he reminded attendees. How do your goals achieve your vision? What do you do every day to follow that vision?
Weihenmayer said there’s something inside of us that seems to feed on the frustration of setbacks.
“Fears conspire against us, they paralyze us,” he said. “We are constantly reaching for immense possibilities.
“When we embrace the no-barriers mind set, and when we reach out to climb higher up the mountain, we bring adversity into our lives,” he said.
“I think the world is crying out for alchemy,” he said.
Weihenmayer said leaders do not lead by words or intentions or the authority of a position, but by example.
There’s a lot of challenge and adversity in the world, but this isn’t the time to lose will or be clouded by fear and doubt, he said.
Be sure to take a look at The VAR Guy’s full coverage of the 2014 Red Hat Partner Conference:
Don’t be afraid to keep checking back for future conference updates from The VAR Guy.
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