HP completes personality transplant

NAKED CAPITALISM is never pretty. After the 'inspiration' of Carly now we now have the 'scrutiny” of Hurd. Perennial printer maker HP also makes storage boxes. The firm is beloved of Wall Street again with the latest numbers on the up and second quarter target of $27 billion revenue being stuck to. But costs will continue to be driven downwards and inefficiencies driven out and if you haven't got the stomach for a fight then step aside.

Asked to describe the difference between the two bosses, an HP executive told how after a team event Hurd declined the offer of an HP tee shirt for photograph but instead immediately asked why the storage division wasn’t doing as well as it should. His capacity for scrutiny, it appears, is infinite. His gaze is everywhere. Working for HP is now about the numbers and Hurd’s extraordinary eye for detail.

HP’s latest storage product launch is the EVA4400 mid market storage array which it is pushing on its virtualisation features, easy set up, dynamic capacity allocation, ease of management and cost - 15,000 Euro.

But it is the public display of naked aggression that accompanies product launches that is new. Instead of offering up its products to the market as before HP now uses its product launches to beat up the competition. Not that the likes of EMC can’t take it. The firm is famously aggressive itself. Perhaps with the sword constantly hanging over their heads, HP staffers have realised they are in a fight and its them or us.

"Third-party testing has shown that IT managers spend up to 75 percent less time managing the EVA due to its superior ease of use when compared to competing arrays from EMC and NetApp," HP said in a statement. And just a few weeks ago at its previous storage launch the firm said it would go "toe to toe" with EMC.

Whaddya gonna do? That's the HP way.