This time, what happened in Vegas didn’t stay there. In June 2024, Antonio Neri, the President and CEO of HPE delivered the world’s first keynote address in the Las Vegas Sphere during HPE Discover 2024, sharing the stage with the rockstar that is Jensen Huang.
Both these leaders are excited for the future of technology for business, with the biggest trend of course being enabling businesses to integrate AI into their workflows. It didn’t stop there though – HPE held a follow-up event for analysts and the press at their office in the city of London, aptly named The HPE Viva Las Vegas Press and Analyst Summit. Wickus Bester, lead data analyst from Stock in the Channel, attended the event to learn what is in store for the world of enterprise IT and to see their revamped Customer Innovation Centre in person.
We have seen an increase of 2.48% for search traffic on SITC for the networking category year on year for quarter 2, with interest in HPE Aruba among the highest in the category**. I am not at all surprised, as every business needs some combination of compute, networking and storage if they want to be a modern and data driven enterprise, with a new addition to that being an AI-integrated business. This is where companies like HPE are helping their partners excel, and to see this we need to look no further than the recently remodelled customer innovation centre stationed at their office.
Revamped Customer Innovation Centre
Following a full remodel, HPE’s London Customer Innovation Centre (CIC) has re-opened its doors to welcome customers, partners and employees to this incredible immersive experience. The CIC is an interactive space showcasing HPE technology and innovation that help drive customer outcomes from edge through to cloud.
HPE is committed to helping our customers achieve their business goals. The CIC provides a space to invite customers in for strategic, pioneering conversations looking at how we can partner with them to innovate faster and perform at levels that elevate them above their competition.
Set over two floors, the CIC features bright collaborative working spaces, high-tech conference rooms, interactive experiences, an innovation collaboration zone and a brand-new hospitality space, complete with their own pub.
As Jennifer Smith, London, CIC Manager who oversaw the CIC relaunch puts it “visitors are guided through our innovation stories in supporting energy generation from waves, to our spaceborne computer – the fastest computer in the galaxy – and past a range of Edge to Cloud HPE innovations, including a racing simulator that demonstrates how we’re speeding up race times with AI technology.”
Jennifer adds, “Telling our story visually allows it to be immersively experienced, not passively observed. We want people to touch, feel, play and explore, helping to understand how HPE technology has brought our customer solutions to life.”
It’s impossible to miss the Mercedes racing car hanging on the wall when you walk into HPE’s innovation centre, a clear reminder their partnership with HPE. Combined with the racing simulator on the centre floor, I saw how trackside data analysis using car sensors and HPE ProLiant servers is giving drivers like Lewis Hamilton the edge (quite aptly). I am going to gloss over my performance on the F1 sim – I’ll definitely be leaving that to the professionals at HPE who had their Machine Learning whisper secrets to them, I am sure.
Another exciting partnership being showcased is the HPE Spaceborne Computer, a server speeding up scientific analysis on the international space station. This computer is proudly called the fastest server in the universe (travelling at around 17,500 miles per hour). Tongue now out of cheek, it does perform at teraflop speed while floating in zero gravity, and as a reminder, the most advanced android in Star Trek ran at 60 teraflops. We are on track to have our own Star Ship Enterprise roaming around if HPE keeps this up.
After seeing all of these impressive displays of HPE’s partnerships, it was nice to end the day in Addison’s Tavern, where you can see an old audio oscillator as a memory of HPE’s first big project in 1939 with Disney’s Fantasia (with Disney remaining one of our largest customers).
What is the purpose of the CIC?
Firstly it is a great facility to bring clients and demonstrate HPE and their solutions. As a venue goes, it is welcoming, has excellent facilities, technology on show, breakaway pods and networking and hospitality abilities – a truly state of the art venue for customers.
As well as levelling up the space, HPE have levelled up their teams too, enabling them to provide better facilitated sessions and a bespoke service to their partners and customers. The CIC provides exactly what each visitor needs, with meaningful, helpful conversations and demonstrations to drive innovation around AI and hybrid cloud.
Most importantly, it’s there to help HPE customers close deals with Jennifer claiming “With a 14% deal acceleration and a deal size increase of 1.8 times, bring your customers and partners into the CIC and let’s discuss their digital transformation.”
Jennfier closes by explaining “I feel a renewed energy has been brought back to the CIC, with a fresh start for our London office and an excitement around in-person customer interactions. We’ve blended a bit of fun with science, and our team is so excited to show visitors around the space, let them drive on the race simulator, enjoy a pint at the bar and explore our technology through real-life examples. It’s such a valuable tool in our customers’ journeys, and we can’t wait to welcome them in to rediscover the art of the possible for their business.”
HPE should be very proud of their renewed CIC, which no doubt will be an important tool for Resellers and something I recommend all HPE customer experience and use. It’s easy to book a visit to the CIC, simply contact your account manager or email London CIC.
Following the walk through of the CIC, the analysts and journalists were presented a recap of all the announcements that were made during HPE Discover 2024 which NITC will go through in detail in a series covering HPE over the coming issues including HPE and NVIDIA’s partnership, HP Private Cloud AI and the latest from Greenlake, Sustainability in Data Centres, the latest developments with HPE Aruba – stay tuned!
**based on 3rd position in trending ranking for Q2 2024 in category Networking
