Whether or not he was properly informed, Leo Apotheker will no longer celebrate his Hewlett-Packard anniversary.  The 11-month stint of the newly evicted HP CEO was filled with highs, lows and loads of drama.

One of the most popular developments (and failures, some would say) of Apotheker’s journey was the webOS saga, and with its downfall, the entire organization is in jeopardy.  But for HP’s high-end product users, the Itanium issue is perhaps the most heartbreaking of all. In March of this year when Oracle formally withdrew Itanium support to develop software for Intel’s chips—a very significant constituent that HP uses in its servers.

Now, with all that’s left and tons of reconstruction to activate, the world waits to see what a the ex-eBay and former gubernatorial candidate could do (or miracles perhaps) to turn things over for HP.  Meg Whitman assumed the role as CEO of the Silicon Valley giant last week, the third chief in two years. From this, the clamor to make peace with Oracle and revive Itanium support continues.  Whether or not it will happen is another question.

One of the biggest independent user communities at HP, Connect’s Chief Marketing Officer, Nina Buik noted that people actually buy the product and not the CEO.  However, with concurrent leadership changes and pending decisions over Itanium, she thinks that there are some serious problems that HP should reconcile internally to regain balance again.

“I think people are looking at things that affect their business strategy,” says Buik.  “It’s the product and product road map. Some events over the last year, such as Oracle’s decision to stop application development for Intel’s Itanium chip architecture, have also made HP enterprise users fix internal road maps.”

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems and Mark Hurd’s appointment as President have only fueled the rift with HP.  Itanium is just another pain point between these two companies.

With the leadership change, users most affected by the Itanium debacle appeal to Whitman to make peace with Oracle, and convince them to revoke their earlier decision. Over 150 HP OpenVMS OS users gather in Needham to discuss options that would re-open doors for an Oracle-HP partnership.

It’s a tough time for many CEOs, facing industry shifts across manufacturing and software models, and ongoing upheaval of leaders, innovators and power players.  As HP continues its road to recovery after another CEO shake up, its leadership plays an important role in how HP is viewed by the public and its investors.