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Referencing a post, Matthew, you wrote, actually it was two posts, at least two, about HP networking.
I picked on this one partly because I used to work at 3Com and I left just before the
Palm Pilot, so, '94 or something, was coming out. But then I followed their progress and
they became part of 3Com.
So, in terms of HP networking; in one of your posts, the one written in June 23rd of this
year; I think it was "HP Networking, 1 year later". And you talked about some of the things
they were doing well, and maybe not so well. You mentioned the lack of design guides and
branded books. Do you want to talk about that? Is that just
teething problems because it takes such a long time for such a huge colossus to get
everything organized? Or is it something else they haven't really addressed?
I think it's probably more of a teething problem but it's not something that's really specific
to HP. I wrote about HP because I've spent so much time talking to HP, not through my
social media thing. I've met a lot of fantastic people at HP and had a lot of conversation
over a lotta meals. I've been fortunate for HP to have given me
access to quite a few of their top notch people and so I kinda have a special place in my
heart, for lack of a better term, for HP. Because I've just talked to them so much.
But it's not a problem with just HP. It's a problem with the industry as a whole. And
that's, you can put out a product. You can put out a manual or two about that product
but from an overall perspective (and of course not every product needs this), but from a
design perspective it's crucial from a network infrastructure perspective for you to, as
a vendor, to let people know how you expect these products to be used.
Cisco is very good about doing this. Aruba, on the wireless side, is very good
about doing this. You know, some companies get it. They put out these design guides and
you can see how they intended their products to be used.
And obviously there are cases where you use products in which they might not have been
intended but that just helps so much from a end customer, from a VAR perspective, because
not everyone can spend half the year going to these classrooms where, you know, experts
are teaching you on the products. Sometimes it's not even experts, it's just people reading
slides but you don't have the luxury of going on training for all these different products.
So, design guides really help, you know, the average engineer out there trying to get something
done. Figure out exactly what the intention of the vendor (is). And then the caveat is
things that you find out through trial and error.
You know the books was another thing, at least for HP because of their sheer size. The point
I made, I wrote a post a year and a half ago, I think, about competing with Cisco and one
of the things I mentioned was (that) you're competing against an ecosystem.
An ecosystem of design guides and book and engineers and technical.
Build your ecosystem out or you're going to lose because the number of people out there
who know anything about your product is going to be a lot smaller.
You've gotta get people to drink your brand of 'cool aid', for lack of a better term.
Yeah. When I first got into the Cisco space, because I was a 3Com guy for a long time,
but when I became an end customer, I truly started to understand how much, as you say,
Cisco have got this ecosystem. And it's only grown since the years I first came across
it. They're everywhere. And they haven't stopped. They're starting to move into mass media kinda
consciousness. Not just the technical side.
EMC is the same way. You know, some companies understand, and you can make the argument,
well they're so big, how can they not? I get that, but if you're a small company and you
want to compete without he big boys, you have to do some of the same things that they're
doing in terms of, you know, gaining an actual audience.
OK. So, these design guides, are they of more relevance to people like your self, or to
the end prospect. Or do they also use them to figure out or check out if it's this type
of thing they're interested in?
Both. Because the thing about the VAR space is, you know, just as a generically-termed
consultant, I'm not always there because I'm the "smartest guy in the room". There's plenty
of times where I'm nowhere near the smartest guy in the room. The client we're dealing
with has engineers that are far more capable. Sometimes, a lotto times, you're there because
they don't have time or the resources to do this.
So, sometimes you're working side-by-side with other engineers because you're an extra
set of hands, you know, an extra body. And when you're dealing with some of these
customers, they're reading the same design guide as you are. And you're working out these
solutions and I actually appreciate that. When we're on the same level, in terms of
trying to get a problem done, and we've read kind of the same guide on a specific technology
from a vendor. That makes it far more enjoyable. So, it's, depending on the situation, I may
be the only one that's read the design guide. But there's plenty of times when the client
has read just as much material as I have and that makes for more interesting discussions.
Or I find that we can get things accomplished a little bit better, and give the client a
better end product, or end result.
Right. Right. Got you. OK, so it sounds like HP are getting on track.
You mentioned their networking side. Well, they've slimmed done their, they're on the
way to slimming down, their product portfolio. And it's kinda integrated now. 3Com doesn't
stand out any more as a separate.
Right, we're getting that A's and the E's to designate the HP / 3Com.. that's done away.
So, three wireless lines are getting collapsed down to one, I think. They're picking the
Colubris line, is what they'll run with. But, it takes time to turn that ship around. And
then with all the executive turmoil they've had, over the past couple of years. They've
got very capable people and good technology, so it's really an execution and a perception
thing at this point. It's a matter of time.
Great. Great answer. Thank you.