A senior HPE executive tells employees at Nimble Storage that its strategic partnerships with Lenovo and Cisco are “over.”
Earlier this week, HPE said it was acquiring Nimble Storage in a $1 billion deal. Lenovo has worked with Nimble Storage as an OEM partner.
It’s the second time in three months that HPE has acquired a Lenovo partner in the storage business. The Lenovo storage group is based in RTP.
Cisco operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.
Antonio Neri, executive vice president and general manager of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Enterprise Group, talked with CRN (Computer Reseller News) about the Nimble Storage buy.
Asked about the Lenovo agreement as well as one with Cisco, Neri said:
“Obviously, we will focus on HPE. And I would expect that [those deals will end]. In fact, to give you perspective, I was just at the Nimble headquarters, and I hosted an employee meeting. It was overwhelmingly positive. A lot of excitement. They understand what the deal will do for them. And in their eyes, this is a billion-dollar company, because we will pay a billion dollars for it. They asked me, what is going to happen to those [relationships], and I said they were over. There will not be a relationship with those companies.
“The customers have choices. If ultimately they standardize on one of those platforms, we will sell Nimble to attach to them. But it will be done at the customer level, not at the partnership level.”
Read the full story at:
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/virtualization/300084111/crn-exclusive-hpes-antonio-neri-discusses-nimble-storage-acquisition-and-nimbles-lenovo-and-cisco-relationships.htm?itc=most_pop
