Enterprise Services and Etc.: The argument snitch rolls on

MUMBAI, INDIA: HUH! It's just baseball or football in the air! How hard/different can it be? That's perhaps what Harry Potter would have babbled to himself when he saw Quidditch for the first time. Probably the same lines would have echoed in the ears of rival jerseys every time the winning team squealed over a score.

But come to think of it. Is the game same, or different or eerily familiar?

The world has changed so much that it's hard to relish an intellectual sparring anymore because every morsel of information worth debating is just a click away, to be pulled out at whim from the colourful cookie jar of Big Data. Bruce Dahlgren, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Services; MD, Asia Pacific and Japan at HP, contends well there.

But then when have curiosity and cats been discouraged by strong arguments? We wonder aloud if Cloud, converged infrastructure trends and those umpteen other forces have indeed changed the game for Services and made it as wizardry-packed and as up-in-the-air as a spooky Quidditch. As Bruce answers and brooms away some apprehensions and doubts; he only one loses one point - the one that it's not possible to savor a debate anymore. Because what ensues is certainly delicious. Bite in.

There has been a lot of talk about Converged Infrastructures at the HP World Tour. Where does that or DIY trends leave the guys from Services corridors?

Converged can be translated to reduced form factor and better TCO. Whether it is a strategic outsourcing contract or in-house IT with some layers needed, we are always there to offer support at various levels that is required. Our focus is to give choices at every level, for example VPN for enterprise-grade SLAs.

Has Cloud affected your proposition in a good way or has the equation changed drastically?

When you think of cloud and services in the same breath, think of it as the fact that now clients have many options. For instance, we have a different bucket called ‘advise' to guide clients into new paradigms, and at the same time we have ‘implement' bucket too. Talking specifically of India, different segments have different preferences. Government and other private organizations may opt for BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) model for less risk and more flexibility. In other segments, the ability to customize may take more importance.

Have you felt something different or odd about Indian markets yet?

APAC is a growth engine and we are witnessing a new growth curve. India is progressive and early-hopper on many trends. India has no legacy and if there has been a lack of penetration like mainframes here compared to other markets, it makes a lot of stuff Greenfield here. We are particularly strong in banking, media, and communication verticals and have a lot of IT solutions in portfolios. In fact, we use a lot of stuff generated from here like Core banking side of some solutions.

If innovation engines keep humming at HP and keep churning out new products, does that make life for you folks easier or a tad challenging?

At HP, it's always about innovation. The better it is the stronger the service aspect we can offer.

Have SLAs also shown any strong currents of change with the new era?

The as-a-service trends and pay-for-use environments are new for sure. SLAs are moving to bespoke KPIs and showing some changes too. The way businesses have started defining their outcomes is radical. They now think in terms of last-mile results like uptime or availability and IT can deliver a lot of expertise and results for these SLAs.

Aren't you perturbed by increasing pace of commoditization? Won't your flavor of IT, specially Services, be easily defenestrated in a hypothetical ‘make my own servers from OEMs' world?

If you think of commoditised infrastructure, you still have to run it optimally and have to ensure security on top of it. Technology gets outdated so refresh cycles are a factor to reckon too. So what we offer cannot be sidelined.

So the Services component is staying fresh and not marginalized?

Business dynamics have changed and that needs a new style of IT to support the new era. We at HP, have a complete landscape whether it is advise, or transform or migrate.