Manoj Chandran and Ranjeet Rayen

What is HP's marketing strategy for Itanium processor-based servers?
Itanium is the first of the Itanium Processor Family (IPF) with McKinley (code name for the next Itanium processor) to follow soon and a host of other products. So, our strategy will be targeted at the early adopters, the developer community. Because, what we need right now is to as much applications built on the processor as possible. The developers are being encouraged through Developers Forum and Partner Technology Access Center (PATC), which is being opened in Bangalore. We feel that the early adopters of Itanium would be the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), who will build applications for their customers.

Where does Itanium-based servers stand in the portfolio of products in HP?
We are targeting three segments. The early adopter community, Secure webservers and the computing center applications. So, Itanium will first be targeted at midrange, from where it will move to the back-end and then go upfront. The Americans are very conscious about uptime, that’s why they have a pair of suspenders to support their pants inspite of a belt. The low-end servers will automatically adopt the 64-bit processing power. So, the midrange is targeted and will gradually increase to high end servers with more and more applications being built on it.

Will the 32-bit processor be phased out?
With Microsoft XP being launched you need more processing power and a developer cannot afford 4GB of memory space with his 32-bit processing. Itanium processor based server has 250 GB memory space. That's the Itanium power we are talking about. 64-bit power computing is inevitable and the world will have to shift towards it. The transition from 18 bit processing to 32 bit happened smoothly, so will this transition of 32 to 64 bit processing.

When will HP phase out its 32 bit processor-based servers?
By 2004, the last of HP's 32 bit processing based servers will be manufactured. That's the time frame that the world will take to shift from 32-bit processing to 64-bit processing. But finally, it rolls down to customer demand.

IBM is your partner for Itanium. What is the relationship you share?
IBM is a partner. They have accepted the Itanium processor powered servers as part of their product portfolio. They continue to work, market and sell on both the IA 32 (32 bit processing) and Power 4 (64 bit processing). IBM is big and can afford to have all the products under its umbrella. It would also, as per market demand, phase out 32-bit processing based servers to 64-bit powered processing based servers.

Sun Microsystems was part of the development but later backed out. Why?
Everybody in the market has accepted the technology except Sun. Sun, for some reason, has disagreed to accept the technology and continue with their present technology and powered servers. They are clearly not poised to face the future. Dotcoms have gone dotbombs and there is a lot of Java based servers in the market being unused and companies and professionals are shifting to higher technology and this will be the 64-bit processor powered computing.

How is the market response for Itanium?
The response has been wonderful. We have a host of partners in the IT fraternity. SAP, Peoplesoft, Oracle have all accepted the technology, IBM and Compaq have also accepted the technology. So the response has been excellent.

Will the slowdown and cost cutting affect the Itanium push in the Indian market?
The slowdown is entirely a different issue from Itanium push. It's a clear case of short-term plan and investment on long term technology ahead. Itanium is just the beginning of a family. We are calling the developer community and ISVs to develop applications on it. So the slowdown will actually help Itanium in the market as all the companies are investing in future technology.

HP has traditionally failed in marketing the products. How is this addressed?
We have a smart woman called Carly Fiorina, our CEO and president, and this point has not gone unnoticed. We have re-organized our marketing structure and this will soon be addressed. In India, apart from having excellent brand equity, HP has an even more excellent network of distributors and resellers. Apart from this, HP is engaged in something, which it has never done before, direct selling. The company itself manages large accounts. As you are aware large accounts are won by relationships rather than marketing. We also have large accounts manager and global accounts manager. This restructuring is a year old and has already happened and results of which will be seen now.

How is the Itanium server priced and who is it targeted at?
It is priced to target the mid-range server products. Depending on the applications built on it, it can be taken from mid range to higher range servers.