And it is all about to happen - only hours away from the official kick off of this years HPE Discover Madrid event and already, following a brief visit to the venue all I can say with all the chaos going on - it's huge!
This is just an opening paragraph or two as I settle into Madrid after Sunday’s flight – don’t plan on passing through Newark of an afternoon and expect to make connections. Expect delays and book your entry into Newark a flight or two before the one any airline suggests – yes, the eastern corridor from Philly to Boston is a mess as airport traffic controllers back up flight departures all the way to the west coast. Yes, then need a NonStop or two – and isn’t there a couple buried deep inside the FAA? Seem to recall signs posted on the old Tandem campus directing FAA folks to training sessions but I digress. I made it and have been involved in the pre-event in formalities even as I call it a day.
Been busy on social media channels already – seen the tweets, and posts to LinkedIn and Facebook? And by the way, forgive the typing miscues as I still stumble when it comes to using my iPhone but what the heck, I am getting better with time. But the point is, HPE is doing a terrific job in bringing together what they are calling an “influencer program” – and yours truly is among this group of influencers. Some of the participants are already familiar faces based on previous HPE Discover events in Las Vegas but others are completely new to me so it should be a fun week.
The serious side of the event will be when Meg and
Antonio take the stage tomorrow afternoon and it is hard to believe how much
has changed since HPE Discover Las Vegas this past June. If you were a HP
shareholder just 12 to 18 months ago, you have done extraordinarily well as you
now are invested in four companies whose combined market capitalization exceeds
that of former times. In case you missed the critiques about HPE from some
sources, this just came out today and it may surprise many:
Congratulations to Meg Whitman for her
fine work at HP - and creating so much value
for shareholders! And kudos for following the advice I
offered 6 years ago: Stop HP's horribly destructive M&A
and spin-off its enterprise, services and software divisions. Indeed, the old
HP broke into legacy HP Inc. (HPQ)
and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
as well as the spin
mergers of its service and software divisions.
Including its spun-off software (($9 billion) and services ($14
billion), HPQ and HPE together have a market cap of $80 billion. In 2011, I calculated breaking
up would give HP an aggregate $80 billion market cap, precisely where we are
today. The parts were indeed worth quite a bit more than the whole - $47
billion more, in fact.
Subscribers to Seeking Alpha financial reports may recognize
where this came from in response to HP Inc (HPQ) announcements of late. But
returning to HPE – everyone in the NonStop community has wanted HPE to be
profitable and focused and that is what we are now seeing. The results are still
mixed even as I remain bullish on the blockchain program centered on NonStop
and NS SQL/MX and working at the enterprise clearly much slower to realize but
the changes to the organization are beginning to have an effect. Industry
Analysts are now paying a little more attention to the product portfolio now
under the oversight of HPE’s new enterprise group management team.
I am expecting to hear a lot more about all of this firsthand in a matter of a couple of hours’ time but for now, it’s still very much a waiting game as all around me, speculation whirls. What will take center stage in terms of new product and technology solutions? Will it be much ado about software-defined (which I think it will) or will it be about sending computers into space (which they have done) or even about the race to build even bigger high-performance computing systems … we will just have to wait and see!
In closing after a very long day - there will be familiar faces at this event just as there will be others I simply don’t recognize. However, the mere fact that HPE continues to go these lengths to keep the community informed is admirable and being part of the folks HPE believes can shift the needle somewhat, helping them get it into more positive territory is equally as admirable. Stay tuned as yes, not only do we have to wait and see but yes, we also can anticipate hearing so much more that is simply positive for the NonStop community.
I am expecting to hear a lot more about all of this firsthand in a matter of a couple of hours’ time but for now, it’s still very much a waiting game as all around me, speculation whirls. What will take center stage in terms of new product and technology solutions? Will it be much ado about software-defined (which I think it will) or will it be about sending computers into space (which they have done) or even about the race to build even bigger high-performance computing systems … we will just have to wait and see!
In closing after a very long day - there will be familiar faces at this event just as there will be others I simply don’t recognize. However, the mere fact that HPE continues to go these lengths to keep the community informed is admirable and being part of the folks HPE believes can shift the needle somewhat, helping them get it into more positive territory is equally as admirable. Stay tuned as yes, not only do we have to wait and see but yes, we also can anticipate hearing so much more that is simply positive for the NonStop community.
Comments
Was there any report that computer system problems were the cause of the congestion, or was it just par for the end of Thanksgiving weekend crunch?