Partners: 'Revolutionary' HPE Pay-Per-Use Channel Model Opens Door For Partners To Ride Services Tsunami

Solution providers say the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise GreenLake Flex Capacity model is a "revolutionary" channel game changer that opens the door for partners to ride the pay per use cloud services tsunami with an on premises solution.

"This is the future," said Mark Romanowski, executive vice president for Agilant Solutions Inc., the global digital transformation specialist headquartered in Port Washington, N.Y. "This is a big deal. There is an as a service tsunami that is sweeping the entire world. It's a completely different way of consuming technology and GreenLake allows us to be a part of it. It's really cool."

Romanowski, who has worked closely with HPE on developing the new model, says with the latest makeover of Flex Capacity HPE has delivered a "revolutionary" new financial model with robust up front incentives for partners on multiyear, flex-up and flex-down, pay per use IT services.

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"With GreenLake Flex Capacity, HPE has simplified the pay per use model for both the channel and customers," he said. "Remember this is a completely different sales model. It's a business discussion with a consumption model, but as a partner you get the dollars up front and you get to control the customer experience with a multi-year agreement with wall to wall services."

Romanowski credited the HPE Pointnext team, including Worldwide Channel Go To Market Sales Leader Greg Stafford and Worldwide Flex Capacity & Consumption Lead Max Ramos, for the countless hours working out the financial details of the new model. "I give them a great deal of credit," said Romanowski. "HPE has been working on Flex Capacity for a very, very long time. It's revolutionary."

Romanowski, who has navigated the twists and turns of the modern IT channel for four decades, says the new model represents a huge breakthrough on the part of HPE with rich possibilities for the channel.

Agilant Technologies, whose new name combines Agile and Vigilant, is powering into the as a services economy with a focus on providing business transformation for its customers- a marked step up from even strategic consulting. "We are seeing more and more customers asking us to work with them on what their businesses will look like five years from now," said Romanowski. "That is an entirely different conversation has ever happened before. It goes beyond IT."

The new model puts the solution provider at the highest levels of businesses working side by side with CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and the board of directors. "We are identifying transformational pillars together," said Romanowski. "We are combining business transformation and the default IT infrastructure experience. It is a complete managed services solution that looks at a customer's entire infrastructure – both IT infrastructure and beyond."

The channel business model has flipped from a capex IT project model a quarter century ago that was composed of 80 percent hardware/software and 20 percent services to an opex model that is now 80 percent services and 20 percent hardware/software, said Romanowski. "This doesn't mean you are selling less product," he said. "You are selling the same amount of product -- maybe more -- but differently. The business model has changed completely for the partner and the customer."

Agilant is combining HPE GreenLake with an HP Inc. Device as a Service (DaaS) offering and business transformation. "We are providing complete end to end as a services with business transformational services," said Romanowski. "We are changing the conversation from a procurement discussion to a trusted partner sitting at the table with the customer at the highest levels."

Dan Molina, chief technology officer at San Diego-based Nth Generation Computing, one of HPE's top enterprise partners and No. 354 on the CRN SP500, predicted the new model will result in a dramatic increase in pay per use GreenLake deals for the channel.

"This is going to be a powerful incentive for IT sales professionals to shift to pay per per use," he said. "It's pretty amazing that HPE is going to be paying the partner on the front end. This is going to be a big channel enabler. We already understood the tremendous value and benefits of GreenLake for customers. This creative offering with immediate compensation benefits is going to make GreenLake even more attractive to our sales reps"

The GreenLake momentum comes with more customers reevaluating their public cloud commitment in wake of what Molina called the higher than expected cost of public cloud. Partners said they are seeing on premises solutions in some cases coming in at 40 percent below the cost of public cloud.

"We keep finding more and more customers that are surprised at the cost of public cloud," said Molina. "We are seeing customer that had a cloud first initiative wanting to stay on premises after they tested the waters with public cloud. We just closed a near, seven figure GreenLake deal with a customer that is extremely happy. We are seeing our GreenLake pipeline rapidly increase and this is going to accelerate that."