Apparently not, if “we” is Cisco and Hewlett-Packard. The latest in the nasty HP vs. Cisco data center hardware battle is that Cisco is dumping HP, a long time partner but increasingly a rival, from its partner program.

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Cisco channel chief and senior VP Keith Goodwin took to video to talk about the evolving network of Cisco parnterships. “As we all know, change is the only constant in the IT industry!” Goodwin points out, helpfully.

“Over the last few years our relationship with HP has evolved from a partner to companies with different and conflicting visions of how to deliver value to customers.  Despite this shift in industry dynamics, HP had remained a Cisco Certified Channel Partner.  Being a Cisco Certified Channel Partner has numerous benefits including access to proprietary information (such as product road maps) and partner profitability initiatives.   Given the evolution of our relationship it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP.”

 

There is no love lost–especially since Cisco entered the server business last spring. More recently, HP scheduled its partner conference against Cisco’s event. I’ve talked to several joint Cisco and HP partners in the past few weeks and none wanted to say (publicly at least) which event they’ll attend.

The thing is, there are a lot of joint Cisco-HP partners  who now feel the heat as both vendors want a bigger commitment. Gone are the days when a VAR could go into a data center account supported by both Cisco and HP field teams. And guess what? They don’t appreciate being put in the hot seat.

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According to Microsoft:

“The pilot is restricted to Microsoft Gold Partners only at a cost of $2,500 for access to Gartner and $5,200 for access to Forrester; pricing is based on the types of services made available. Fees for the services are paid by Gold partners directly to the firms, however partners may sign-up to participate in both of the companies’ pilots. Sign-up is limited to 250 partners per firm on a first come, first serve basis.”

 Partners wanting access to Gartner research, can access it a this Gartner site    And here’s a site for Forrester fans.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com.

Microsoft’s nascent Analyst Relations for the Channel (ARC) program gives select Microsoft Gold partners access to Gartner Inc. or Forrester Research analysts and online resources and two participants said the service has been invaluable.

“We’ve had three or four conversations with Gartner analysts and they’ve been very helpful. [The sessions] help us plan out our strategy,” said Lee Blackstone, CEO of Blackstone & Cullen, an Alpharetta, Ga.-basedGold partner specializing in business intelligence and collaboration.

Gartner is good for going over things that may be huge in terms of hype and buzzwords but more difficult when it comes to building real-world pay back, he said. Enterprise search is one oft-used example of that phenomenon.

The pilot is available to up to 500 Gold Certified partnesr and it is not free. Partners pay $2,500 for a year’s subscription to Gartner’s services, including a custom portal of user-selected research. VARs also get access to Gartner’s widely quoted Magic Quadrants.  And they can participate in monthly analyst conference calls.

The Forrester subscription goes for $5,200 per year including unlimited access to all of Forrester’s written vendor-focused Technology Industry (TI) and user-oriented IT research as well as one-on-one calls with analysts.

In this tough economy, VARs need more support and help planning where to place their long-term bets.  

“This helps us validate our business direction,” said another Gold partner who also signed up for Gartner. “It also helps because a lot of our customers use these services and it helps us know what they’re hearing from the analysts.”

Participating SAP VARs or ISVs looking for marketing, sales, programming or development help can use the service to search 40 million LinkedIn members worldwide, 140,000 of which are SAP consultants, according to Pat Hume, senior vice president of SAP’s Global SME channel.

LinkedIn Recruiter typically costs a customer for $25,000 per year for three licenses. SAP partners will pay significantly less—although just how much less wasn’t specified —for one user for a year. The offer ends Dec. 31, 2009,  but could be extended depending on demand.

The offer covers SAP partners with 1,000 employees or less.

A hiring manager can search the LinkedIn network  by zip code and other search parameters: Business Objects, BI, ABAP, etc., said John Scola, SAP’s vice president of ecosystem expansion.

Brian Frank LinkedIn’s director of alliances said while this deal is not necessarily exclusive, the company is not pursuing similar pacts in the near term. SAP owns a piece of LinkedIn.