HPE and NTT: Stronger Alignment Ahead

**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of August’s important channel-program changes you should know.**

HPE GLOBAL PARTNER CONFERENCE — Before NTT Communications (NTT Com) was an HPE Service Provider, the global information and communications solutions powerhouse was an HP customer for more than a dozen years, outfitting its data centers with HP technology for service delivery.

A few years ago, NTT partnered with HP and began doing early testing on the vendor’s technology, including hyperconverged, with NTT using it in its own labs. As a cloud service provider, NTT was always on the lookout for ways to reduce costs and the footprint that a solution takes up in its data centers.

“And then you drive everything from software … performance levels, service level agreements and other things all through software just using the standardized hardware,” Indranil Sengupta, vice president, product management, global enterprise solutions, at NTT America Inc. told us, adding that without innovation and improved efficiencies, it’s hard to compete.

In December 2015, HPE announced that partners in its Partner Ready Program for Service Providers could deliver NTT services to the companies’ joint customers in a consumption model. NTT offers network services, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), enterprise private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructure, cloud migration services, professional and support services, and managed services.{ad}

Sengupta is excited about the enhanced HPE Partner Ready for Service Providers Program, announced this week at HPE Global Partner Conference (GPC) 2016, held in Boston.

“It’s taking the same direction that we’ve been going. With the cloud, it’s not just the application folks who have to show the ROI and value … as an IaaS provider we show them the value, show them how they can better run their business, grow their business, manage their risk and compliancy — so the cloud has forced us to take the conversation up the chain,” he said.

That means the business discussion has moved beyond compute, memory and storage to providing services to meet the requirements of the customer’s business growth, profitability as it pertains to reduced costs, and even expansion into new markets.

“The big thing for us [regarding the Service Provider Program enhancements] is the alignment where HPE from the service-provider perspective is taking a solutions approach, and is no longer just talking cloud or hyperconverged infrastructure – which is all good – but how does it relate to businesses needs? … Because we do that as well. Are you going to give it as a managed offering, are you going to test it every year, are you going to train my people for best practices?” said Sengupta.

More specifically, he pointed to the new solution competency areas that HPE just announced, that provide a specific hooks where NTT plays, such as IT Automation and Orchestration, for example. “I think this is going to be a much stronger alignment when we go jointly to customers,” Sengupta said.

Last month, NTT Communications Corp. marked the success of its two-year old Global Solutions Channel Partner Program at Channel Partners Evolution last month in Washington, D.C.