Latest / Buzz Off / Episode 4: Simon Ewington, HPE

Transcript

Episode 4: Simon Ewington, HPE · Buzz Off

• 0:08
  Hello and welcome to Buzz Off.
• 0:10
  My name is Oliver Chapman.
• 0:11
  I am solutions director for networking and Security in Computacenter UK.
• 0:16
  This is a web series designed for our customers by our customers.
• 0:20
  Each week I bring on a new guest from our partners
• 0:23
  and I have three buzz words or phrases
• 0:27
  submitted by our customers that they are not allowed to say.
• 0:30
  If they say one of the buzz words or phrases, you will hear this noise...
• 0:37
  If they say all three of the buzz words,
• 0:40
  then they will be forcefully ejected from the studio.
• 0:44
  This week's buzzwords are “Edge”, “AI Ops”, and “Agentic”.
• 0:49
  Good luck.
• 0:51
  This week's guest is Simon Ewington, Worldwide channel and partner ecosystem
• 0:55
  leader from HPE, and he is joining us live
• 0:59
  via video link in Geneva.
• 1:02
  Simon Ewington, welcome to Buzz Off.
• 1:04
  How are you feeling?
• 1:06
  I'm super excited.
• 1:09
  Coming to us live via video link.
• 1:11
  This is a first for us.
• 1:13
  Live from a different country nonetheless.
• 1:16
  Exactly where are you, Simon?
• 1:18
  I'm in my basement, as you can see, in Geneva in Switzerland.
• 1:23
  Fantastic. Well, look. Welcome.
• 1:25
  So you know the concept
• 1:27
  and it's a little bit different, because usually I have three buzz words
• 1:30
  or phrases that are selected by customers, which I still have.
• 1:33
  But if you sale three of them, you're
• 1:35
  usually forcefully ejected from the studio,
• 1:37
  which is going to be quite hard to do with you in Geneva.
• 1:40
  So instead, what I'm going to do
• 1:42
  is I'm going to kick over all the camera equipment and
• 1:45
  and shut down the interview, terminate it immediately and cut you off.
• 1:49
  I'm assuming you're happy with that?
• 1:50
  Quite reasonable, I'll eject myself.
• 1:52
  Okay.
• 1:54
  Well, thank you again for joining me.
• 1:56
  So first and foremost, what keeps you at HPE?
• 1:59
  Well, I've been here for a long time.
• 2:01
  I'm 33 years across HPI,
• 2:05
  so what is now HPI and sales endpoint and HPE.
• 2:08
  I think it's two things really the breadth of personal opportunity that I've had.
• 2:14
  So I've done many, many different roles across many facets of the business.
• 2:19
  And the fact that being in a big company is, you know, working for Computacenter,
• 2:23
  keeps the level of interest.
• 2:25
  And secondly,
• 2:26
  it's been like you're making a difference from a technology perspective.
• 2:30
  We're an innovator at heart.
• 2:32
  We always have been.
• 2:33
  I've always wanted to work for an innovator who makes a difference,
• 2:37
  who drives the industry forward, and I have the opportunity
• 2:41
  to not only develop my own career, but also to help partners and customers.
• 2:46
  And so, I mean, you talk about innovation specifically what's changed
• 2:51
  relatively recently at HPE that you think customers should really care about?
• 2:57
  Well, I mean, you had the opportunity to be at our marquee event
• 3:00
  that we run annually in Las Vegas.
• 3:02
  HPE Discover.
• 3:04
  We made a lot of exciting announcements.
• 3:07
  In fact, in the session I run the Partner Growth Summit.
• 3:11
  There were almost too many announcements, and I was asked
• 3:16
  for an artificial intelligence summary to make it easier for partners.
• 3:19
  But essentially, I probably call out two things.
• 3:23
  The first is around what we terms the great VM reset.
• 3:28
  Virtualisation is a topic
• 3:31
  that every CIO is willing to entertain, just because
• 3:36
  the licensing costs have become sort of a major, major headaches.
• 3:39
  And that's why we brought HPE VM essentials to market.
• 3:44
  And because of the way we price, we price
• 3:47
  per socket versus traditionally vendors in virtualisation
• 3:51
  price per core, customers have got savings of up to 80%.
• 3:55
  And that's important because when you think about
• 3:57
  what's happening in the industry, with the massive increase in commodity
• 4:02
  due to supply shortages, we can essentially free up IT
• 4:05
  budget from virtualisation to go and spend on other projects.
• 4:09
  And then the second area I guess is around Juniper.
• 4:12
  I mean, the Juniper acquisition I think is a stroke of genius
• 4:18
  on behalf of Antonio and the ability now to expand
• 4:23
  and really deliver self-driving AI
• 4:26
  native networking capabilities.
• 4:29
  I think it's something that's caught the imagination of customers and partners.
• 4:33
  Yeah, definitely.
• 4:34
  And it's really it was really exciting to kind of see the storytelling come
• 4:38
  to life around how you're starting to bring the two portfolios together. So.
• 4:42
  So look, you're joining us at Computacenter for this conversation,
• 4:46
  specifically from your perspective and from an HPE perspective as well.
• 4:51
  Why Computacenter?
• 4:52
  What in your view makes the partnership work?
• 4:55
  I've personally known Computacenter
• 4:58
  for most of my working life
• 5:02
  and what I've always enjoyed with Computacenter
• 5:05
  is it's a truly collaborative relationship, and collaboration for me
• 5:09
  means shared history means
• 5:12
  trust, respect, but ultimately like a mutual desire
• 5:17
  to drive real business outcomes for our mutual customers.
• 5:21
  And I think what Computacenter provides
• 5:24
  working with HPE is scale that matches our own scale.
• 5:28
  You're serving already many of the, you know, of our largest global customers.
• 5:33
  And Computacenter’s always had deep expertise,
• 5:38
  whether that's segment expertise, deep services capabilities.
• 5:43
  But what we really share is this unmatched commitment to delivering
• 5:48
  complex projects and solutions that deliver real outcomes.
• 5:53
  And then on a personal level, I think we've always had very strong
• 5:57
  executive alignment, both centrally, but also in all the countries
• 6:01
  like the UK&I, you hold highest tier
• 6:04
  in these countries and you're part of our international partner program.
• 6:08
  So I think, you know, what we've seen, particularly in the last 3 or 4 years,
• 6:12
  because I think we've had a resurgence, is that we're a winning combination.
• 6:16
  Yeah, a powerhouse couple, you might say.
• 6:21
  So look, a couple of questions down.
• 6:22
  Doing well, feeling strong. It's all good.
• 6:25
  So you talked about CIOs earlier with regards to
• 6:30
  I think virtualisation specifically.
• 6:32
  What do you think
• 6:32
  is a is a question that every CIO should be asking their teams right now?
• 6:36
  Well, I think every CIO should be really asking
• 6:41
  how do we build a strong enough
• 6:44
  IT foundation that they can turn artificial intelligence
• 6:50
  from what is essentially still large scale experimentation
• 6:55
  into real business impact, but do that securely,
• 7:01
  do it at scale, and without adding more complexity.
• 7:06
  And the reality is, for many
• 7:08
  IT teams, what this means is that they need to really look beyond
• 7:13
  these isolated pilots that all our customers are driving
• 7:17
  at the moment and asking whether or not you've got the right foundations.
• 7:21
  And when we're talking about foundations,
• 7:23
  it's things like, do we have the right data?
• 7:27
  Is it structured in the right way?
• 7:28
  Do we have the right networking capabilities?
• 7:31
  We have the right compute capabilities?
• 7:33
  Is our security up to scratch?
• 7:35
  Do we have the right governance in place to turn
• 7:39
  AI into production reality?
• 7:43
  That's essentially what the question I think that CIOs should be asking
• 7:48
  themselves is, do I have the foundations to be able
• 7:51
  to be successful in artificial intelligence?
• 7:55
  Okay, fantastic.
• 7:56
  Now you talk like - our customers love outcomes.
• 8:00
  And and they love it when we support them to make a difference.
• 8:04
  I mean, you mentioned earlier about some cost savings.
• 8:07
  I think you're like 80% was a was a figure that you gave earlier.
• 8:10
  When you think about some of the impressive outcomes that you've seen us
• 8:13
  deliver collectively as a partnership - Computacenter, HPE -
• 8:17
  what are some of the use cases that spring to mind for you?
• 8:20
  I've got a really good one that we worked on together,
• 8:23
  which is pretty recent, and it's for what I would term as a household
• 8:28
  national name in hospitality
• 8:31
  and Computacenter with HPE has really driven,
• 8:36
  I think, pretty impressive
• 8:37
  outcomes around the implementation of self-driving networks.
• 8:40
  Now, this is something that I think we at HPE, especially with
• 8:43
  the addition of Juniper can do, like nobody else in the industry.
• 8:48
  And actually with this customer in particular, they're now benefiting
• 8:53
  from AI automation within their own network operation organisation.
• 8:57
  It means that they're predicting issues before they happen.
• 9:00
  When they do happen, they can automate fixes and they can
• 9:04
  simplify management.
• 9:07
  Essentially, it's like having junior network
• 9:10
  operators working 24 by seven, delivering exceptional,
• 9:14
  very high quality experiences for every user.
• 9:19
  And in the hospitality industry, having a good networking experience
• 9:23
  is foundational to every guest experience that they have.
• 9:30
  And interesting
• 9:31
  I think, thinking about that example specifically without naming any names,
• 9:36
  that customer is actually using their user experience
• 9:41
  and their guest network as a differentiator now in their in their
• 9:45
  go to market, to their, to their customers, which is once again
• 9:49
  like it, it's a slightly different outcome to probably
• 9:52
  some of the more traditional ones that you might think about from where
• 9:55
  it's actually supporting revenue generating services.
• 9:58
  Revenue generating services and reducing costs
• 10:01
  by being able to reduce their essentially the network operating costs.
• 10:06
  So you mentioned Discover,
• 10:10
  what is the long term vision right now that you're hearing from
• 10:15
  from the exec team that HPE are looking to deliver for customers?
• 10:20
  I mean, in the simplest terms,
• 10:25
  I think our long term vision is to enable
• 10:28
  customers to become agenetic enterprises themselves,
• 10:32
  and that means that they need to be able
• 10:35
  to run increasingly autonomous
• 10:39
  AI in a way that's trusted, in a way that's efficient,
• 10:43
  is economically sustainable for them, so they can innovate faster,
• 10:48
  they can automate, and they can make better decisions at scale.
• 10:52
  And the way we achieve that is working with partners
• 10:57
  like Computacenter and providing your full stack foundation.
• 11:00
  I mentioned earlier on so that they can operationalise
• 11:04
  AI, and nobody has a
• 11:09
  the same breadth of portfolio in the industry
• 11:12
  as we enjoy together across networking, cloud and AI.
• 11:16
  So it's really enabling the agentic enterprise of the future.
• 11:20
  Oh, we've got a buzzword.
• 11:23
  We've got a buzzword. I did quite well so far.
• 11:25
  I mean, look you've been playing a very dangerous game, I must say.
• 11:29
  I mean you've been dropping them left,
• 11:31
  right and centre, but I think we finally stumbled upon one.
• 11:34
  So we'll continue the interview.
• 11:36
  But that's your first warning.
• 11:38
  Okay. So consider yourself warned.
• 11:41
  And and yeah, we're going to need to tread a little bit more carefully,
• 11:44
  although there's only a couple more questions to go.
• 11:46
  So I'm thinking that you're going to do well.
• 11:48
  So you mentioned
• 11:52
  about your tenure in HPE specifically.
• 11:55
  And I think in in IT in general, we're all a little bit nerdy.
• 11:58
  So, what excites you personally about the portfolio?
• 12:02
  I mean, you mentioned you love being part of an innovative organisation
• 12:06
  when you're looking at the change that's going on right now.
• 12:09
  Yeah. What gets you excited?
• 12:11
  I think it's the ability, and it's always been the ability
• 12:15
  to deliver outcomes for customers, to be able to see your solutions
• 12:18
  really having an impact on their business.
• 12:21
  And it's not about adding sort of new products, it's
• 12:25
  about bringing everything together.
• 12:26
  And I think that's something that the IT industry is doing much better.
• 12:31
  And I'm talking about the IT industry as a whole and specifically in
• 12:35
  HPE, we've had a vision around delivering solutions across AI,
• 12:41
  networking and hybrid cloud to allow customers
• 12:45
  to move from experimentation to production much, much faster with their customers.
• 12:49
  And I think the fact that we're now delivering on that vision
• 12:52
  and helping customers to to save money, essentially to be more efficient,
• 12:58
  to deliver better experiences and to keep pushing
• 13:02
  ourselves forward as an industry is probably what it sites me the most.
• 13:06
  And what's probably kept you,
• 13:07
  you're working in the industry for as long as you have as well.
• 13:11
  Yeah.
• 13:12
  And so finally, you played a fantastic game.
• 13:16
  What do you think customers should be looking for next?
• 13:19
  What should be on their on their radar
• 13:21
  and any, any teasers from from an HPE perspective?
• 13:25
  Well, I mean, this is probably a little bit further out,
• 13:28
  but I think.
• 13:33
  The whole area around next wave of innovation
• 13:36
  and how we can combine supercomputing with quantum capabilities.
• 13:42
  I think it's something that's super interesting and it's tantalisingly
• 13:48
  close on the horizon to move
• 13:51
  from what's essentially very expensive
• 13:55
  experimentation today
• 13:57
  to real world application and tomorrow.
• 14:00
  And the reason why I think this is exciting for me
• 14:03
  personally, for your customers and also for the industry,
• 14:09
  is because it's got the potential that we've never seen before to unlock,
• 14:14
  like a just a completely new area of performance, a new era of innovation,
• 14:19
  and to radically speed up problem
• 14:23
  solving that right now is either impractical
• 14:26
  or quite often it's just simply impossible.
• 14:30
  And I think that's probably the next frontier.
• 14:32
  You saw some of that at HPE Discover,
• 14:34
  and there have been some announcements in the industry in the last few weeks
• 14:38
  and start to feel that what was once science, science fiction is turning into
• 14:43
  technical reality at some point in the not too distant future.
• 14:48
  Amazing. Well, Simon, you made it.
• 14:51
  You did a great job.
• 14:52
  One buzzword I mean, that is an incredible effort.
• 14:55
  Despite, as I say, I feel like you played
• 14:57
  an extremely aggressive game, which I love.
• 15:00
  But look, thank you so much for joining me.
• 15:02
  It's been a fantastic conversation.
• 15:04
  Have you you enjoyed it? Enjoyed yourself?
• 15:06
  I've enjoyed it immensely.
• 15:08
  Oli, thank you for hosting me and thank you
• 15:10
  for the relationship with Computacenter.
• 15:12
  We always enjoy working with you guys.
• 15:15
  Thanks. Lovely stuff.
• 15:17
  Congratulations. He made it.
• 15:19
  I mean, one buzzword.
• 15:21
  It did get extremely exciting, but what a fantastic guest.
• 15:25
  Really interesting to hear about the storytelling of HPE and Juniper,
• 15:29
  that combined powerhouse now coming together to drive self automated networks.
• 15:36
  What a fantastic guest.
• 15:38
  Thank you. Simon, for joining us.
• 15:39
  And the technology held up as well.
• 15:41
  I didn't have to kick over any camera equipment.
• 15:44
  Thank you for joining us.
• 15:45
  We'll be back next time with another guest and three more buzzwords.
• 15:49
  See you later.