HP becomes Office 365 powerhouse

HP will offer end-to-end Office 365 services to the enterprise market, in a new partnership with Microsoft announced today.

HP and Microsoft's "full solution" will encompass services ranging "from the initial advisory engagement, through transformation, to ongoing management, analysis, reporting and user support".

Branded as HP Enterprise Services for Office 365, the new offering will include value-added features such as "comprehensive service accountability, managed service solutions, tightly integrated support processes and expanded data centre location options".

HP enterprise customers wanted "end-to-end solutions", said HP's managing director and general manager, HP Enterprise Services, HP South Pacific, Nick Wilson.

"Teaming up with Microsoft will allow HP to offer our industry leading enterprise services with Microsoft’s widely adopted Office 365 suite, starting with Exchange Online running on HP servers in HP data centres," he stated.

The partnership builds on a previous one announced in 2011 - a four-year partnership in which HP would deliver a range of cloud solutions, including reselling Office 365 with HP Enterprise Cloud Services.

Microsoft has copped criticism from its channel in the past for initially giving Telstra exclusive rights to Office 365 and announcing this year that it would run its own free migration program. In September, Microsoft launched a new Cloud Solutions Provider program for which only four partners would be selected. The identity of the exclusive club is expected to be revealed this month.

An executive from one Microsoft partner, speaking to CRN on the condition of anonymity, worried for local Office 365 resellers that specialise in the enterprise market.

"This will hurt enterprise resellers," he said. "If you're a CIO and you now have the choice of HP – as opposed to a local player – you'll see the big multinational as the lower risk decision."

"I just hope that [Microsoft] isn't making the same mistakes as when they did the Telstra deal."

Sydney Microsoft partner NetCareIT concentrates on the SMB segment, so it saw the HP announcement as a positive.

"Given our focus is not enterprise, but the SMB sector, I see this as yet another positive endorsement for Office 365," said NetCareIT managing director Darryl McAllister. "Office365 and Azure is quickly gaining scale, and with scale comes lower pricing."