The venerable IT giant Hewlett-Packard announced on Monday that it is splitting itself into two companies.

A newly christened Hewlett Packard Enterprise will house software and services, networking technologies, as well as its big iron servers and storage, while the other entity, HP Inc., will consist of its PCs, notebooks, tablets and, of course, printing systems.

Part of the rationale, according to HP CEO Meg Whitman, is to “more aggressively go after the opportunities created by a rapidly changing market,” by giving each half “the independence, focus, financial resources, and flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics.”

HP as it stands today targets desktops, displays, thin clients, tablets, laptops, as well as servers, storage and services under the umbrella HP Healthcare Solutions with offerings particular to payers and providers, including care management, electronic health records, patient workflow and security software. 

[See also: Vermont awards HP $48M Medicaid contract.]

So will insurance companies and hospitals be essentially forced to buy HP servers from one company and then have to work with the other company to purchase the desktops, notebooks, tablets? And what about services, like security and support, that are typically part of large-scale hardware procurements?

If the company has already devised a plan for dividing those, keeping them intact, or perhaps a cross-selling strategy for healthcare and other vertical industries, company officials are keeping that close to the vest.

“There will be a 12-month period where the specifics of the separation are detailed,” a spokesperson told Healthcare IT News.

That’s little comfort to any hospital CIO or IT department considering a fleet of PCs and printers as well as servers needed to network them all together — let alone the software it sells.

[See also: HP supports UK hospital's IT revolution.]

What HP has made clear thus far is that the split is part of a five-year plan to turn around the company, both halves will be publicly-traded, current stockholders will receive one share in each for every share they hold in today’s HP, each new HP will be close to evenly financed moving forward.

Whitman is slated to be CEO of HP Enterprise, while the current  executive vice president of HP’s printing and personal systems business, Don Weisler, will become CEO of HP Inc.

Company officials said HP intends to complete the transaction by the end of its 2015 fiscal year.