SUSE acquires HPE OpenStack and Cloud Foundry assets
The relationship between SUSE and HPE is, in a word, complicated. HPE spun and merged its non-core software assets with Micro Focus. Micro Focus, in turn, owns SUSE, a major Linux provider. Now, SUSE has acquired OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud assets.
HPE and SUSE's cloud and Linux partnership has become closer than ever.
Got all that? What it boils down to is SUSE will use HPE OpenStack and Cloud Foundry assets to improve SUSE OpenStack Cloud and bring to market a new, enterprise-ready SUSE Cloud Foundry PaaS.
At the same time, SUSE and HPE will continue to leverage SUSE's OpenStack expertise for HPE's Helion OpenStack and Helion Stackato PaaS clouds. HPE will also use OEM SUSE's OpenStack IaaS and SUSE's Cloud Foundry PaaS technology for use inside HPE's Helion OpenStack and Helion Stackato clouds.
That's the first part. Also, HPE has now named SUSE as its preferred open-source partner for Linux, OpenStack, and Cloud Foundry solutions. In effect, SUSE is now HPE's Linux and cloud software developer.
According to SUSE sources, SUSE will continue to market and support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and its cloud products to other customers.
At the same time, SUSE has increased its engagement with the Cloud Foundry Foundation. SUSE has become a platinum member and is taking a seat on the Cloud Foundry Foundation board.
Cloud Foundry itself recently made significant management changes. Sam Ramji, its founding CEO, recently moved to Google to become its VP of project management. Abby Kearns is now the Cloud Foundry's executive director, while Chip Childers has taken over as the organization's CTO.
According to SUSE CEO Nils Brauckmann, the company is making these moves because of "SUSE's commitment to providing open-source, software-defined infrastructure technologies that deliver enterprise value for our customers and partners. This also demonstrates how we're building our business through a combination of organic growth and technology acquisition."
Ashish Nadkarni, IDC's program director for Computing Platforms, likes the move:
"This expanded partnership and transfer of technology assets has the potential to be a real win-win for SUSE and HPE, as well as customers of both companies. SUSE has proven time and again it can successfully work with its technology partners to help organizations glean maximum benefit from their investments in open source. SUSE is positioning itself very well as a high-growth company with the resources it needs to compete in key market segments."
What does HPE get out of it? First, HPE is continuing to cut its internal software development costs. This move, for example, comes after HPE's latest programmer and software engineer layoffs.
Ric Lewis, HPE's SVP and GM of Software-Defined and Cloud Group, added, "We are evolving our investment strategy to focus on developing the next evolution of hybrid cloud solutions, which combines HPE technology with a broad ecosystem of open-source and partner technologies that support traditional and cloud native applications."
Lewis continued: "Customers tell us they need simple hybrid offerings. By partnering with SUSE, HPE will continue to provide high quality OpenStack and Cloud Foundry PaaS solutions that are simple to deploy into customer's multi-cloud environments."
This, in turn, fits into HPE's new hybrid infrastructure IT masterplan. HPE proposes to provide the services needed to provide its enterprise customers with the right mix of private, public, and hybrid clouds, and traditional datacenter software and services, for all their business IT needs.
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