Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri downplayed rival Dell's new on-demand offering as he touted the Silicon Valley giant's lead in the push toward the "everything-as-a-service" business model.
Dell recently unveiled an on-demand offering that lets businesses install its servers and data-center gear but pay for only the computing capacity they use — instead of buying entire hardware and software systems at sticker price.
Neri shared his thoughts on Dell shortly after HPE reported quarterly results, saying HPE has been taking the lead in offering products and services based on a pay-per-use model.
"People are now trying to copy us, but our differentiation comes in different forms," Neri told Business Insider.
HPE had earlier rolled out its own as-a-service offering, called Green Lake, geared toward companies that have networks both in the cloud and in private data centers.
These initiatives underscore the rise of the cloud, which lets businesses set up networks on web-based platforms run by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. This also allowed businesses to scale down or even abandon in-house data centers, which had hurt HPE and Dell's business.
But the two tech giants, and other traditional enterprise tech players, are eyeing new trends that are expected to lead to a boost in demand for enterprise tech gear and systems. One is the hybrid cloud, in which companies set up networks in the public cloud while maintaining huge chunks of data and applications in private data centers. The other is the multicloud, where businesses use different public-cloud platforms as well as in-house data centers.
HPE and Dell are also embracing an on-demand model to offer clients lower-cost and more flexible access to their products.
Neri said HPE enjoyed many advantages over Dell.
"We have expertise through our services business that's unique," he said. "Obviously, Dell owns a big chunk of ownership in VMware." But he said HPE remained an important partner of VMware.
"Obviously, we have our own IP," he said. He cited HPE's recent acquisition of big-data and AI-analytics companies, BlueData and MapR.
"We believe we have a significant advantage in leadership in this particular market," he said.
However, the market offered a downbeat reaction to HPE's results. HPE shares slipped more than 4% in after-hours trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected revenue.
HPE reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $480 million, or $0.36 a share, compared with a loss of $757 million, or $0.52 a share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell 9% to $7.22 billion. Adjusted profit was $0.49 a share.
Analysts were expecting HPE to post earnings of $0.46 a share on revenue of $7.4 billion.
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