HP's SP Certification Program

HP's new certification program is designed to enable enterprise customers to find service providers who can deliver basic services and advanced business packages.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [December 12, 2002]

The new HP announced its HP Service Provider Certification program on Tuesday (December 10, 2002). The certification assesses a company's infrastructure and its ability to deliver services to clients.

Sean Hehir, HP managing director of worldwide service provider partnerships and programs, said the program as a response to demands from three groups. "First, enterprises wanted quality assurance when they ordered services from providers. Second, SPs were looking to learn more from HP's expertise in integration and customer support. Third, when we select partners, we want to perform some quality assurance during the selection process."

The HP Service Provider Certification comes in two levels. To be SP Certified, a service provider pays $9,000 intially and then $3,000 per year for an annual renewal of the certification. At the higher SP Signature Certified level, a company pays $50,000 initially and an annual renewal fee of $15,000. The company sends "mission critical" consultants to the SP. They evaluate the SP's infrastructure and issue recommendations in a "gap analysis report" that identifies the SP's strengths and weaknesses.

Heavyweight customers
One large company that has already signed on as an HP Signature Certified company is AT&T. David Strack, AT&T's director of managed hosting services, agrees that the program helps identify SPs that can serve large customers.

Says Strack, "we have a long working relationship with HP. I think that someone who's looking for more than just a location for their equipment will find the certification useful. It helps us communicate with HP's sales team. It gives some indication of who's making the grade. It's an evaluation."

The program's two certification levels are designed to satisfy two different needs. According to Hehir, "with our certification, we're offering two levels, one to firms that feel that they have a strong capability and need only some guidance, and another level for firms that want to re-examine their entire infrastructure."

HP's consultants work from standards designed by the UK-based ITIL when making recommendations. Consultants make use of both interviews and inspections in judging a network. They even measure the humidity in the computer room.

The consultants also take stock of a company's special strengths. "We understand that service providers have some unique expertise, especially in disaster recovery and identification of bottlenecks," notes Hehir.

The sum of parts
Previous to their recent merger, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard each had certification programs. The current program unites these separate efforts, and SPs currently certified will be eligible for the new program.

Compaq also had a relationship with Microsoft. The new certification program retains that relationship, which allows HP Signature Certified candidates to also acquire the Microsoft Gold certification in the same process, for an additional one-time fee of $30,000. Notes Hehir, "doing both certifications at once with our mission critical consultants should result in a cost saving and a time saving."

The HP Service Provider Certification program is aimed at service providers with data centers and enterprise customers. "At the lower level, SP Certified, we're saying that they can deliver services and have failover," explains Hehir. "At the higher level, SP Signature Certified, we're also looking at the people, tools, and processes the company uses, and we're examining their ability to deliver on SLAs."

If you're already using NonStop servers, HP-UX servers, the AlphaServer, ProLiant servers, or similar high-end HP products, the certification may provide opportunities for you. SP Signature Certified customers also get to be part of HP's marketing efforts and to appear with HP at trade shows.

Hehir believes that large enterprises will continue to outsource IT projects, even if the economy improves. "Most SPs, from the large telco to the startup ASP, thought that small and SOHO businesses would adopt the outsourced model. However, it turns out it's the enterprise customer that has tended to adopt this model. We believe there's a movement in IT consumption from a capital-intensive fixed-cost model to a variable consumption model. In the past, companies hired CIOs and purchased servers and storage. Now companies can outsource. Enterprise customers will accept targeted solutions. While the small business customer wants a turnkey solution, the enterprise is willing to outsource."

This insight points to HP's vision of the future. "We believe that the variable consumption of IT will continue, and that HP must be a leader in this area."

—End