HP Storage Boss Turns on Blender

When Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) earlier this month announced it would merge its server and storage operations into a single Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) group, some skeptics believed it was mainly to achieve cost efficiencies (see HP Fuses Server, Storage Units).

Competitors namely, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) – were hopeful it was a sign HP was downplaying its storage business. Or could it be that HP was simply emulating IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), which did the very same thing last year? (See IBM Merges Storage, Server Groups.)

Bob Schultz, newly appointed VP of HP's network storage solutions group, says none of these theories is even close to reflecting the truth. And what is that, then? That customers want a more holistic view of their computing infrastructure – and HP, he says, is better positioned to deliver on those requirements in a more integrated fashion.

"Nothing exists in a vacuum. Storage does not exist in a vacuum, servers don't exist in a vacuum – they connect to each other, they connect to applications, and they have services wrapped all around that. So one of the benefits of this reorganization is really kind of tuning this focusing."

Schultz, 45, takes over for Howard Elias, who is now heading a new group in ESS, Business Management and Operations. Though HP insiders expected Schultz to be tapped for the position, he's moved to the head of the class in fairly short order. In August 2002, Schultz joined HP as VP of marketing for the storage group after spending two years as COO of Adaptec Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT).The success of his tenure at Adaptec is still unclear. When HP announced his hiring last year, it said that Schultz had "successfully established [Adaptec] as a leader in iSCSI storage networking" after leading its acquisition of Platys Communications to obtain a foothold in TCP offload technology. But so far, iSCSI has been nothing but a miserable dream deferred for Adaptec, which has been forced to recalibrate its expectations as the IP SAN technology keeps getting pushed out (see Adaptec Sees iSCSI Delayed and Adaptec Axes Headcount, Again).

Before joining Adaptec in August 1999, Schultz spent eight years with Compaq in various roles, including VP of the server storage group in Compaq's Storage Products Division. While there, he helped form Compaq's strategy for the emerging SAN market with the launch of its first Fibre Channel storage arrays. Prior to that, Schultz spent 11 years at AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) in product planning positions. He has an MBA from DeVry's Keller Graduate School of Management and has a master's degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Schultz spoke recently with US Editor Todd Spangler about the mood of HP's storage group today, why melding with the server group is the right thing to do, its iSCSI strategy, and why he's suddenly so interested in email archiving. (He also manages to use the word "blended" no fewer than five times.)

To read the interview, click on the links below:

— Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch