HP buys Eucalyptus Systems in an attempt to compete with Amazon in the cloud-computing segment. The acquisition signifies that HP is recovering from a lengthy period marked by debt and low revenue.
Eucalyptus is a company that produces software for ‘private’ cloud computing. In fact, the company provides hybrid cloud computing services, similar to those of Amazon. What it means is that clients can store their data on their own servers, while they are able to access the cloud whenever they need extra computing power.
‘Private’ cloud computing was not on Amazon’s mind, but CIA made an offer they could not resist. Amazon designed a $600 million data center for the intelligence agency.
As cloud computing becomes more common, competition intensifies. There are several types of cloud computing and a couple of large tech companies placed their bets early on. Public and private cloud computing basically use the same technology, the only main difference residing in the type of access to the information. Hybrid cloud computing uses more clouds that can be public or private, but remain distinct. The hybrid model offers advantages in data management for both the provider and the client as well.
HP wants to offer the broadest range of cloud computing services and Eucalyptus Systems is a clear step in that direction, as the company provided cloud services compatible with Amazon’s.
“Our strategy is really not to say we’ll only have public or private offerings and we believe the lines between all those continue to blur and at least for enterprise workloads, most of them over next few years will be on-prem clouds or hosted private clouds, Bill Hilf from HP Cloud stated. “That’s the sweet spot we target and Eucalyptus brings with it not just AWS interop but general skills in that market.”
The acquisition of Eucalyptus seems to be a first major HP investment in cloud computing. HP announced back in May that it plans to invest about $1 billion in cloud computing, so we will definitely hear similar news coming from the established tech company.
HP did not disclose the sum paid for Eucalyptus. The company is valued at least at $55.5 million, the sum raised so far. The move is important for Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos as well. From now on, Mickos will manage HP’s cloud business. Mickos previously managed a company that sold mySQL to Sun Microsystems in 2008 for $1 billion.