HPE channel chief Jenson on Discover 2026, the Canadian angle, and what partners should stop doing

Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show.

Since HPE Discover 2026, we’ve been all over the subject. You’ve heard from HPE’s Justin McGarry on the compute and AI infrastructure story, from Fallon McCarthy on the networking pivot and partner program changes, and from three Canadian partners, Compugen, Powerland and Long View, on what HPE’s strategy looks like from the front lines of the Canadian channel.

Today we close the arc as we sit down once again with HPE’s Vice President of North American Channel and Partner Ecosystems, Jeremiah Jenson. It’s a conversation that takes the temperature of the show floor after three days of partner meetings, looks at where the biggest margin opportunities actually are for partners, and asks what one thing Canadian partners should stop doing and start doing as they head into the second half of 2026.

Let’s get right into it. My chat with Jeremiah Jenson.

Interview:

Robert Dutt: Jeremiah, thanks for taking the time. Once again, good to catch up with you.

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, great to see you, Rob. Thanks. It’s Wednesday afternoon at Discover as we sit down, and the good news is you’re still standing. That’s a win in its own right at this point. You’ve now sat in a lot of rooms with partners who have heard the full story that we talked about in the previous podcast we did together. I’m curious your thought on the temperature, the reaction, what’s landing differently in the conference room than it did on the keynote stage, that kind of thing.

Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, the temperature is phenomenal. There’s so much excitement about… There were a lot of announcements this week, but the clarity of message, while I say it this way, we’ve packed a full month into this week, but the clarity of that message and how it’s being very clearly communicated, clear opportunity for partners to go execute on and take advantage of that very real opportunity that we have right in front of us. So I think it’s landing really well from a temperature standpoint. I mean, white hot, I mean, there’s just a tremendous amount of excitement.

Robert Dutt: I want to start with a thing that I felt got one of the strongest reactions on Monday, the 30-day validity terms announced. Now the partners have a few days to process that, as well as the quote-to-cash stuff and the expanded credit terms. Is it changing the feel of the deal conversation or is it still a, you know, we have to see it roll out before it does?

Jeremiah Jenson: I think it changes the feel. It did get a very strong reaction. It got the strongest reaction in the room. I think one thing that it says, it’s a very clear proof point about how we’re very in tune with the market. We know that it’s been a very difficult situation with what’s going on in the industry with rising commodity costs and things along those lines. And it’s a very clear proof point around how we’re listening to our customers, how we’re listening to our partners, and changing how we can help support them through this time. So I don’t think it’s a wait and see. We have a very clear proven track record of building and earning trust with our channel community. And now we’re executing. So we are what, two and a half days later, a day and a half later, and executing.

Robert Dutt: On Monday, on the podcast we ran Monday, you asked partners to go one more mile to consider bringing, you know, one more HPE product line to their customers. Three days later, are you seeing an appetite for that? And that was certainly also a theme throughout the event is the idea of cross-selling and representing more of the portfolio. But I’m curious what you’ve seen in terms of appetite for that, or is it still a heavy lift in a situation where a lot of partners are trying to go deeper and do better in single areas?

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. So a little bit more about that for your listeners and for those of you who have not met personally, I use the one more mile thing. I’m known as long distance runner. It’s my hobby. It’s something that I’m passionate about and I’m happy to get distracted talking about. But the analogy lands really well. Can we just do one more? And again, back to how clear the message has been, how clear the opportunity is right in front of us. And we are seeing partners adopt that cross-sell motion, but it’s also beyond just cross-sell or upsell or something along those lines. It’s a very clear opportunity to help them grow their business. It’s not just, okay, would you like fries with that? It’s you’re really good in the data center. Now you have a data center networking opportunity that not only can you take that to your existing customer, but you can build your business around that expanded opportunity that we now offer you. And that is very real. So love for you to run another mile with us. We had our inaugural 10K run this week as well. But at the same time, we want to help you grow your business in yet another direction.

Robert Dutt: What’s the signal it tells you that partners are buying into that and are succeeding in expanding beyond? Whether it’s adding networking, if they’re a traditional compute and storage house or whatever that expansion is.

Jeremiah Jenson: We see a very clear signal, a very strong signal in how partners are adopting the Partner Ready Vantage Triple Platinum Plus framework. We are seeing partners move up that stack and across the portfolio in a very meaningful way. That is a very clear proof point, not only in the opportunity in the market, but how we’re supporting partners to take advantage of that opportunity.

Robert Dutt: And that’s Triple Platinum Plus is a big ask. There’s a lot behind it, but it sounds like there’s some real momentum too.

Jeremiah Jenson: There is real momentum. It is a big ask because there’s a lot of very real dollars, but I would also say don’t get consumed with, “Oh my God, I’ve got to get to Triple Platinum Plus.” The framework around how that program lands around the different centers is very attainable to help you grow. Again, back to the mile analogy, one more mile at a time. No one goes from running a 5K to a marathon. We’d love to help get you there. And at the same time, let’s go through the right training, the right enablement, and the right support process to get you there.

Robert Dutt: All right. What’s the conversation you’ve had this week that surprised you? Not the one that you expected you have, but the one that partners are bringing to you that maybe caught you a bit off guard or just weren’t expecting to be as big a focus as it has been.

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, networking is front and center. I don’t know that I want to say that I was surprised by that, but I will say the energy and excitement around networking, HPE networking, how the progress we have made over the last year has just been absolutely phenomenal. So that’s first and front and center. And it really starts with how we’re integrating and accelerating our efforts there. Another thing that I would say that is really just an equal amount of excitement is the Great VM Reset. So some of the announcements we’ve made around Morpheus Enterprise, VME, how we’re working with partners to take advantage of the Great VM Reset. Look, no one’s looking for a greater expense. So the 90% cost savings opportunity that’s out there, there’s just a lot of momentum in a couple of these very, very strategic areas. And to put a finer point on it, sometimes historically, you get through the base of the business and then you try and work into some strategic areas. We are starting from the strategic areas. We’re starting from networking. We’re starting from Morpheus Enterprise and VME. We’re starting from storage and then bringing the rest of the very strong pieces of the portfolio along with us.

Robert Dutt: Canadian partners are a specific cohort and usually aren’t terribly shy about sharing their opinions on things. I’m curious what you’re hearing from the Canadian contingent that feels distinct from the broader North American channel. In terms of data sovereignty, in terms of market relevance, those kinds of things.

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, I’d love to meet a shy Canadian partner first and foremost. I mean, they have a very clear voice and a very clear, passionate point of view around what is important to the Canadian market. So certainly there’s data sovereignty. Data sovereignty is really important to them, but then there’s also other pieces around what’s going on with things like provincial governments. I’ve had a number of conversations around what’s going on with what I will call broadly the public sector space in Canada. We had a very deep conversation around provincial business and how we can work together with partners to help capture that. And that was very distinct and a very, well, certainly a new opportunity and an area for us to grow, but also had a very clear point of view that comes from a Canadian perspective. And then of course, there’s data sovereignty. There’s the requirements of how Canadian partners are helping Canadian customers. And I always love the Canadian cohort, just their passion, their commitment to their country and to their business, and the fact that doing business locally is important. And that’s where, just from my standpoint, they have a level of intimacy with their customers that I could never… We as HPE don’t intend to and don’t want to replace. We simply want to help and accelerate that because they have a level of knowledge that I will never understand.

Robert Dutt: Fidelma Russo framed the enterprise AI shift this morning as moving from pilots to production systems. For a partner listening to this, what does the unlock look like practically and what do they need to get ready for?

Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, the AI phenomenon isn’t a future opportunity. It is here right now. I’ve said that a couple of times. It is here now. So it’s not pilots. It’s how are we helping them just accelerate that with customers? And I say the word accelerate a lot, but to make it a little bit more real, what I would ask Canadian partners to do to get ready for is frame a point of view. AI is a very broad, amorphous topic. Agentic AI is very real, but there are pieces of this phenomenon that partners should have a clear point of view on, whether that’s getting the data structure in the exact right place, whether that’s the security angle and what we’re doing to help with our software components around security for AI, or whether that’s what we’re doing around agentic AI and having the right governance and control. But it all starts with what is the customer business problem that we’re trying to solve and then working backwards from that and how we enable the partner to help solve that business problem. But it’s incumbent upon the partner to have a very clear point of view. And we will underpin that and enable that with our programs, with our technology and with our capability in partnership with them.

Robert Dutt: Similar idea, but from a partner financials point of view, where do you see the biggest actual margin opportunities for partners in the AI and the agentic AI shift right now and into the near future?

Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, directly the largest margin opportunity is in the services aspect. So partners that have a very mature or have built out a services practice, whether that’s professional services or whether that’s managed services practice customers are looking for a partner who can help them make that requirement to insert AI into their business. They’re looking for them to help that become a reality. So that’s the first part. So we’ve got a number of capabilities, whether that’s partner branded services or things along those lines, but services is always the most profitable piece of the business. Beneath that, I think it’s really important for partners to understand where is their business, where is their business, who is their customer base and what are they looking for and whether that’s our networking business, whether that’s our cloud business or whether that’s our AI business. So we have award winning programs to support that. We’ve announced a number of new things, whether that’s NBO in the new business competitive takeout in the storage space, NBO for compute. There’s new business opportunity compensation on the networking side. So there’s a number of different places and it’ll depend on the partner’s business, but there’s a fantastic margin opportunity across the portfolio.

Robert Dutt: There’s a lot of aggressive actions going on here. In terms of you’ve got a Cisco displacement opportunity, you’ve got the VMware migration opportunity, you’ve got some of the things you point out. I’m just, I guess I’m curious how you’re prioritizing those competitive opportunities within the channel and for a partner with limited bandwidth, where would you suggest they focus?

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a difficult question to ask and the reason it’s difficult to ask or it’s difficult to answer is because every partner has a different go to market and has a different strategy. We, I wouldn’t prioritize any one area above the other because there are networking partners that have, I’ll give you a couple of examples and proof points. There are networking partners that have come to us from the Juniper side or from the Aruba side, what we now call HPE networking. That are now expanding directly into our PC AI business. I had a meeting this afternoon with a very sizable partner who historically has been from the networking side of the business that saw an opportunity to expand their business into our AI business and they’re leading with PC AI as an example. We see other partners who have historically been very strong data center partners and see an opportunity from networking and have are very strongly adopting our Marvis solutions and our data center networking solutions and are bringing that to their customer base and using that to take new market share with Cisco. So what I would say is partners have chosen a very strong point of view. They understand their customer base and they’re expanding with our portfolio to very strategic adjacent areas.

Robert Dutt: I sat down with Brad Shapiro a little while ago from the HPEFS side of things and got the view of how things are going and what kind of struck me about that conversation was the way that they’re getting closer with the business units and being able to sort of better present the whole thing. I’m curious how you’re viewing financial services in the channel org and the opportunity there to remove friction, to make deals easier to do all the things that they’re going to.

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. HPEFS is a strategic weapon and a strategic enabler of the business. Full stop. What they’ve done with that 90, there’s a current initiative called the 99 promotion that they have around how they’re helping customers overcome some of the financial hurdles to get to a full modernized hybrid IT infrastructure. And so their integration and the just interlock between the different business units to help unlock that opportunity for customers. It was very clearly an opportunity is very clearly a situation where we saw an inhibitor of the business HPEFS as a strategic partner to us to help unlock that opportunity. And I would just use that as an opportunity to say how leaders such as Brad Shapiro or any other leader of any other business unit are working together to solve for customer problems and help them get to where they need to go. It’s just a very clear proof point. So that 99 for your partners out there, have a look at that 99 opportunity and how we can bring that to customers sooner rather than later. Don’t use it as a diving catch. Get it in sooner. Make it a part of what you do day in and day out.

Robert Dutt: By the time this episode airs, listeners will have heard from three Canadian partners that I talk to this week, Compugen, Powerland, Long View. Without knowing what they told me, what’s the one thing that you’d hope that they’re telling me about how they’re working with HPE right now? And maybe one thing you worry they might have said.

Jeremiah Jenson: Well, I don’t know that I worry about anything that they would have said. Those are all very strong Canadian partners. They’re all very strong HPE partners, Hewlett Packard Enterprise partners. And we’re excited about our growth plan with each of them. They are all leading in different areas. So from a Powerland standpoint, I suspect there’s probably a conversation around GreenLake and how they’re taking GreenLake a little bit more broadly. They have headed back to what I said earlier. That is a partner that has a very clear point of view with their customer base and how they are using some of our more strategic pieces of the portfolio to really drive a strong customer outcome. You mentioned Compugen. Compugen love what they’re doing in Toronto and more broadly and how we’re working together with them to really… That’s a partner we really listen to in terms of what they’re seeing from a market standpoint, from a pricing standpoint, and how we can execute faster. And so they’ve been very tight with us in terms of how we need to frame some of our policies and how we need to accelerate based on real world customer feedback and work from there. And then from a Long View standpoint, I sat down with Dave this week. Great man. Love to see what they’re doing and how they are expanding their business across the portfolio. They’ve got a very strong, again, very strong clear point of view, what we want to do around storage and networking especially. And so again, they’ve understood the pieces of the portfolio that are very relevant to their customers. And we were just very explicit about what we are going to do together to help grow that piece of the business. So that’s what I… If you can learn from those three partners, if nothing else, have a very clear point of view.

Robert Dutt: All right. One of the things that Canadian partners always raise is the issue of data sovereignty. The sense that being north of the border means different rules, different customer expectations, sometimes different product availability. Where does that show up in your priorities in the channel org in the second half of the year?

Jeremiah Jenson: Well, I guess I would frame my answer this way. The rules are different. And that’s where Canadian partners are so valuable, not only to me, but to the broader Hewlett Packard enterprise. Though the partners that are in that market have a depth of understanding and a depth of knowledge of those requirements and are really helping to put the right, whether that’s, I want to say solutions, a word that is too often used, but at the end of the day, they are solving business problems around those requirements. You know, data sovereignty, product availability, what level of service is offered based on whether that’s location geography, whether that’s in the provincial government or whether that’s in a commercial customer, they have an understanding. And I think that that’s the piece that is so valuable about the channel is they have a level of understanding and a way to work with us to help satisfy the customer. So I’m hearing a lot about data sovereignty. I’m hearing a lot about pricing requirements and things along those lines. I mean, let’s be honest, some of the feedback that we heard from Canada was some of the loudest feedback that we heard in terms of, and that helped us make the change that we did around 30-day quote validity. So we made some very specific changes and Canadians were by no means the quietest voice in the room. And, you know, we’ve mentioned some people here today that were very clear in their escalations and what they needed to service their customers.

Robert Dutt: All right. If you’re a Canadian partner listening to this, you know, what’s one thing that you’d like them to stop doing and one thing they should start doing? Degree of difficulty. The answers are not selling the other guys and selling HP.

Jeremiah Jenson: No, yeah. You know, I don’t ever have the ask of stop selling the other guys. At the end of the day, we have the right products. We have the right program. And we are going to earn our place based on our channel heritage, based on our predictability and based on the trust we will earn. So I have a tremendous amount of confidence that when we work with channel partners, we will win based on our predictability, based on our trust, based on the quality of products and programs that we put in market. So I don’t have that ask of partners. We are going to earn our place very intentionally. So my ask of them, the one thing to do is, I say it a lot, but pick a point of view. There is a place in this portfolio where we can help one another and help your customer produce the business outcome that they want. Let’s identify what are those one or two things that we can do together to help go that extra mile. How can we run one more mile together? That’s my ask. The other piece that I would ask is to what not to do is, I think the past helps frame where we want to go, but we don’t have to worry about what used to be. We don’t have to worry about what used to be with HPE or going all the way back to HPE or to Compaq or things along those lines. I’ve been back at HPE for a year now and the past helps frame where we want to go. So my what not to do is we don’t have to worry about what used to be. What we do want to help do is where are we going. So that’s the way I would say that is it’s a new day. We are on the front foot. We are very aggressive about where we’re going and what we’re going to do. And come join us.

Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about that future a little bit. Where do you want the HPE channel to be on January 1, 2027 that it is today? What are you kind of focused on for the back half of the year?

Jeremiah Jenson: A back half of the year, just to be, if you will, a little bit more point in time. I have some very clear goals around our networking business and to make that a little bit more real, the data center networking business, our wireless business, our campus and branch business is performing very well. Our data center networking business is also performing very, very well. And so I’ve reset some targets higher than they were around our data center networking business. So I have some very high expectations around data center networking. So I would love the Canadian channel to lead that charge from a data center networking standpoint. Also our hybrid cloud business. So we have very clear expectations around VME certifications and things along those lines because customers are demanding a different level of outcome from their virtualized environments. I mean, let’s be honest, no one is looking for more Broadcom in their business today. There isn’t customers saying, I’d like some more of that. I want to be treated more like that. And we have a very clear solution. And so we’re looking at VME certifications and you see how we’ve put out the virtualization competency and then we’re helping partners use VME for IT so that they can drink their own champagne. So I want Canadian partners and I want North America to lead the way globally around VME certifications. So I have some very high expectations around our hybrid cloud business. That also extends to our storage business. Our storage business is growing at triple digits. It’s phenomenal with what we’re seeing there. And so storage is another piece. And then by no means last, but the third thing I would say is I have very clear goals around co-selling, what we call co-selling. How are we bringing the HPE Salesforce, which is a very different sales force now. It’s a growing sales force. It’s one, Phil Mottram, our chief revenue officer, is making investments in North America sales. How do we get our sales teams together with our partner sales teams and again, go to a new customer, a new opportunity, go take that extra mile? So it’s those three things.

Robert Dutt: All right. Similar idea, but waking up January 1st of next year, what will be the metric or two that would tell you that Discover 2026 was a turning point for some of these important changes that you see coming?

Jeremiah Jenson: Yeah. What’s interesting is just the conversation has at Discover or some of these sort of events, you always kind of start with the base of the business, the core of the business, and then you expand the conversation to some of the strategic areas. This year is very different in that we are working from the networking, the hybrid cloud pieces of the business, the software pieces of the business, and that has been the conversation all week, and it’s been really exciting to see. So waking up January 1, knowing that it’s real, we will have surpassed the raised expectations that I had around the networking business. We will have surpassed our expectations around hybrid cloud, Morpheus Enterprise, and storage. And then I also want to see us look at very strongly how do we accelerate our compute business, our AI business? That is, we’re producing very real customer outcomes. How do we take that to the rest of the market that hasn’t yet taken the first step around AI? So that’s the third thing I would put in there.

Robert Dutt: Okay. Not so much a strategy question as a human one, but what’s one moment from this week that you’re going to, you think you’re going to remember six months from now?

Jeremiah Jenson: Six months from now, what’s a moment? I will certainly remember the 30-day quote announcement. Six months from now, that’s more of a human moment. Also, I mean, just the connections that we’ve had, you know, as much as that’s maybe a straightforward answer, one thing my boss and I did, we had a, I mentioned running earlier, we had a 10K run for the first time that kind of came up as a thing. We had some Canadians join us. It became an international event. We had a South African that was there. We had a couple people from the UK. It just kind of organically grew, and it’s nice to see people really come together. That has been really nice. One other thing, you know, six months from now, the World Cup is ongoing right now. So just to call that out, it’s the first time I believe I don’t have the history that the rest of the world does with the World Cup. But just to see that happen and how that’s brought together, the fact that it’s in North America, and you can have some of those ancillary conversations and really frame some lasting bonds around some of that. You know, the tie for Spain or things along those lines. There have been things like that, and those common experiences that we have together are helping us build strong bonds from which we can grow the business.

Robert Dutt: Working for HP, are you contractually required to be a fan of the Argentine?

Jeremiah Jenson: I am not. I’m not contractually obligated. I personally, I love a good international competition, whether that’s the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics, the hockey, instead of doing the All-Star Game, you know, what they did with the Tournament of Four, this last. I love that sort of stuff. I’m not an Argent as much as Antonio might be upset about that. Nothing against Messi. I’m sure he’s a phenomenal player. At the end of the day, I’m an American. I’m going to cheer for the United States. But I also back the pack. So when it comes down to it, it’s going to be a, I’m going to cheer for the North America side of things, whoever that may be.

Robert Dutt: There you go. Last one for me. When we talk next, whether that’s at Discover Next Year, hopefully sometime ahead of that, what do you hope we’re talking about?

Jeremiah Jenson: I mean, I hope we talk about how we’re seeing compounded growth. We’re seeing acceleration in the business across the portfolio now. I hope we’re talking about how we compound that. How do we, you know, it’s, you know, growing at the pace that we’re growing to continue to that growth on a larger number would drive compounded growth. So I would love to see the pace, the percentage at which we’re growing be continued. I’d love to have that conversation next year. And we’re going to do that with partners.

Robert Dutt: Good answer. And I don’t know how many partners are going to turn their nose up at the idea of compounding growth. So I think who wouldn’t love that end there. Good. Awesome. I appreciate your taking the time once again, safe journeys home. And thanks for thanks for helping us out so much running the channel over the last, the last couple of weeks.

Jeremiah Jenson: You bet. Rob, thanks. Always good to talk to you.

Show outro:

There you have it, Jeremiah Jenson from HPE.

I’d like to thank Jeremiah for making the time at the end of what was a very long week in Las Vegas and the candor he brought to the conversation that could easily have stayed at the level of talking points.

A few things I’d like to take away from this one. First, the energy around networking isn’t just keynote rhetoric. Jenson is resetting targets higher for data center networking specifically, and he’s looking to the Canadian channel to lead part of that charge. Second, the 30-day quote validity landed because partners were loud about it, and Canadian partners were among the loudest. That matters. And third, the through line of this whole arc from HPE Discover is that the company is trying to shift from a base of the business story to a strategic front foot story. Networking, hybrid cloud and the VMware reset aren’t afterthoughts anymore. They’re the opening argument.

If you’re just catching up on the full series, you can find all of our coverage from HPE Discover 2026 waiting for you on the In The Channel feed, partner interviews, product deep dives and day-to-day dispatches on The Buzz.

Thanks for listening. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, most other podcast directories. If you like what you hear, a rating or review goes a long way to helping other Canadian IT professionals find this channel.

Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca and I’ll see you in the channel.