Del Prete said that, under Hurd, HP has been good at selling the parts of technology companies want and need -- servers and PCs -- but not the entire set of needs.

Analysts don't expect any disruption in the company's operations as a result of Hurd's departure -- something they credit Hurd with.

HP plans to conduct an external and internal search for a replacement, but Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC, said some of the current crop of HP executives may be attractive to to the board. "There is a fair amount of people inside who can take his place," she said.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

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