AppIQ already has partnership agreements with HP competitors EMC Corp., IBM, Hitachi Data Systems Corp., and Network Appliance Inc.

Clabby said he doesn't think the HP buyout will damage most of AppIQ's business relationships because the other vendors need AppIQ's ability to create a single management pane of glass across heterogeneous storage networks. And IBM already has heterogenous management capabilities with its SAN Volume Controller appliance.

"We intend to keep each of our other OEMs and use the channel as a key business value," AppIQ Chief Technology Officer Ash Ashutosh said.