Hewlett-Packard Enterprise sells its software business(businessinsider.com)
businessinsider.com
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise sells its software business
http://www.businessinsider.com/hewlett-packard-enterprise-sells-its-software-business-2016-9
58 comments
What are some examples of software that are getting spun out?
I would assume stuff like HP-UX will stay at HPE?
I would assume stuff like HP-UX will stay at HPE?
I think the gem in all of this is HavenOnDemand but absolutely NO ONE has even heard of it ... https://www.havenondemand.com ... it can clearly compete w/ Bluemix ...
With the Watson stuff, yes.
With the Cloud Foundry stuff, maybe not. HP have two Cloud Foundry distributions, if I am counting correctly -- HP Helion and Stackato (which was a an early fork).
Disclosure: I work for Pivotal, we are the majority donor of engineering to Cloud Foundry.
With the Cloud Foundry stuff, maybe not. HP have two Cloud Foundry distributions, if I am counting correctly -- HP Helion and Stackato (which was a an early fork).
Disclosure: I work for Pivotal, we are the majority donor of engineering to Cloud Foundry.
HPE Helion == Suite of cloud products
HPE Helion Stackato == Cloud Foundry
There has been some branding changes, but things are settling down.
Afaik Stackato is not too much of a fork anymore - but we have always had a single CF distros.
There has been some branding changes, but things are settling down.
Afaik Stackato is not too much of a fork anymore - but we have always had a single CF distros.
Thanks. Branding is hard.
According to the info graphic on the HPE website this includes things like IDOL and AppPulse. You can see more at https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/news-archive/featured-art...
Eucalyptus is one example that is getting spun off.
Are you sure? I thought that was going with the Enterprise Services spin off merger.
Right, that is being spun off and no longer with HPE. Figured the example being sought was software that will no longer be with HPE and not just this specific spin off.
[deleted]
Where is ArcSight going to end up?
It appears that all of the Enterprise Security Products division, including ArcSight, Fortify, Voltage, and Atalla, are being spun out.
I work there and today's been utter chaos. Lots of meetings with upper management and people wandering around confused. I came in to work in a new position in a new team with a new manager. They probably shifted all the people they didn't care about into roles where they would be unhappy and eventually quit, as opposed to outright laying people off. Meg's mentality is that basically any unit of HPE has a pricetag. I'm probably going to stick around for a few months and quit if I can't transfer back to my old team.
I'm curious why they choose this method of majority owned spinoffs. What's the rationale behind this financial engineering? Is it that the parts have better multiples than the parent? That they can claim better optics by consolidating the Earnings Per Share?
Yeah, that the unit is more attractive than the parent is listed in the press release: Accelerates HPE's strategy to unlock faster-growing, higher-margin and stronger free cash flow company.
There is also the consolidation and cash payment to consider. All told the spinoff is probably cheaper than trying to buy the competitor.
There is also the consolidation and cash payment to consider. All told the spinoff is probably cheaper than trying to buy the competitor.
Very interesting point. In essence this reduces the competitors in the industry, gets them a cash payment, and allows them to consolidate the earnings.
I think this is a way to consolidate the whole Autonomy mess they started when they overpaid for and tried to integrate the company.
It seems HP, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Box, etc. are all trying to build the future of business computing. Good luck with that!
It seems HP, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Box, etc. are all trying to build the future of business computing. Good luck with that!
We're trying to integrate with some of the Autonomy stuff at the moment, talking to HP you realize they know about as much as we do about the products - I assume they got the products, but forgot to hire the developers who created them?
Wasn't it over $1 billion for Autonomy?
Wasn't it over $1 billion for Autonomy?
I just heard a Podcast from HP and Autonomy's chief customer guy hyping NPS score. I guess they never asked you. :-)
More like $11 billion :)
Yeah wow I was an order of magnitude off... I can't wrap my head around how this is good business but I'm sure someone knows what they're doing.
It wasn't good business. HP are suing for fraud. However no they did not know what they were doing. Probably still don't.
They ended up writing off 9 billion or so of that purchase.
There is a management concept of the "value maximizing owner". As someone else pointed out, HP under Meg is all about figuring out who can maximize the return on investment into a particular HP business unit. In the cases of the Printer & Computer, IT Services and Enterprise Software businesses, Meg Whitman and HP's board have decided that an external party is better suited (right synergies, right management structure, etc.) to maximize value. Therefore, they are spinning these businesses out to another entity.
Keeping a business unit on the books just because it generates cash is no longer considered to be the most optimal way to manage a large portfolio. This, and concepts related to an Advantaged Portfolio, are covered in some detail by the folks at Monitor Deloitte [1].
1. http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/s...
Keeping a business unit on the books just because it generates cash is no longer considered to be the most optimal way to manage a large portfolio. This, and concepts related to an Advantaged Portfolio, are covered in some detail by the folks at Monitor Deloitte [1].
1. http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/s...
> a spin-off and merger of its non-core software assets
Does anyone know HP well enough to summarize what the "core" business is?
Does anyone know HP well enough to summarize what the "core" business is?
HP arbitrages commodity hardware, commodity software and commodity software consulting through enterprise sales channels and their well known brand.
This is the most apt description I've ever read about the post Fiorina HP.
It's a shame that I can only upvote you once.
It's a shame that I can only upvote you once.
Oscilloscopes, as I recall.
The right way to think about HP is as a conglomerate : a company of companies.
Looks like they are trying to create separate focussed companies out of it. This enables different companies to succeed or fail on their own merit. For example, the software company does not have to eat up the losses from the hardware company and vice-versa. This also enables the companies to partner with outsiders. For example, if HPE servers are terrible, the software company can now buy better servers from Dell or Lenovo. This would be hard to do before, as questions would be raised if a product company was unwilling to use it's own products. It can also integrate with products from other companies eliminating the so-called 'strategy tax'.
Disclaimer : I used to work at HP/HPE, but this is pure speculation.
Looks like they are trying to create separate focussed companies out of it. This enables different companies to succeed or fail on their own merit. For example, the software company does not have to eat up the losses from the hardware company and vice-versa. This also enables the companies to partner with outsiders. For example, if HPE servers are terrible, the software company can now buy better servers from Dell or Lenovo. This would be hard to do before, as questions would be raised if a product company was unwilling to use it's own products. It can also integrate with products from other companies eliminating the so-called 'strategy tax'.
Disclaimer : I used to work at HP/HPE, but this is pure speculation.
I've never heard of any Hewlett-Packard software other than BIOSes in HP PC's, and firmware in HP printers, and of course HP-UX plus surrounding paraphernalia.
Micro Focus is involved in the merge, a name synonymous with COBOL.
Micro Focus is involved in the merge, a name synonymous with COBOL.
They over-spent buying autonomy almost five years ago.
They are most well known for their testing software they acquired from Mercury Interactive about ten years ago:
LoadRunner, Quality Center, and Quick Test Professional
It's actually pretty good software, just overpriced.
LoadRunner, Quality Center, and Quick Test Professional
It's actually pretty good software, just overpriced.
I worked for a few years on storage at HP. They had the EVA, 3PAR, and Lefthand product lines when I was there. Though HP sold them as storage array hardware, the primary expense was engineering the software, not the hardware. The EVA was a storage array that originally came from DEC and ran a custom RTOS. 3PAR and Lefthand both ran Linux. These were large, reliable software products with big install bases. The EVA was over 100k units. I think there were 60-80 developers working on the EVA across 4 sites at the peak.
They would also have lots of software engineers working on their networking products.
Other operating system software than HP-UX would be VMS and NonStop.
They would also have lots of software engineers working on their networking products.
Other operating system software than HP-UX would be VMS and NonStop.
I would guess a lot of the Hacker News crowd has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Enterprise software utilization. A lot of the stuff, you only see if you're in the IT department at an older company larger than a certain size.
VMS was supposed to die, but got transitioned to a new company called VMS Software Inc.
HP is a large, diverse, seemingly disconnected organization. Their enterprise products seem to be marketed and sold almost entirely separately from their standard consumer and business computers, printers, etc. You can spend years dealing with the latter category and never know the former exists, even when they are selling similar products such as servers.
> Micro Focus is involved in the merge, a name synonymous with COBOL
They also own SUSE Linux.
> Micro Focus is involved in the merge, a name synonymous with COBOL
They also own SUSE Linux.
... and Borland, Attachmate, and Novell.
Seems MF has a knack for collecting antiques.
Seems MF has a knack for collecting antiques.
The thing people don't realize about HP/HPE is, we do everything.
Before the HP/HPE split, we were at one point 320k people.
We do general IT outsourcing, we run and staff call centers, we build servers, we build printers (everyone knew that though ;)), we build software in just about every vertical you can think of, we run SaaS (e.g. online training and education platforms). Everything.
Disclosure: I work at HPE (or is it Micro Focus? My group is still a tad unsure - but overall we're not too worried either way).
Before the HP/HPE split, we were at one point 320k people.
We do general IT outsourcing, we run and staff call centers, we build servers, we build printers (everyone knew that though ;)), we build software in just about every vertical you can think of, we run SaaS (e.g. online training and education platforms). Everything.
Disclosure: I work at HPE (or is it Micro Focus? My group is still a tad unsure - but overall we're not too worried either way).
I'm at HPE and we write software for our network switches. So you can add that to your list :)
I'm genuinely curious what endgame Meg Whitman is planning for HPE, she seems to be divesting most of the 'E' in HPE. So just commodity servers/bladecenters, storage and networking (half of which is already rebranded Aruba)?
Keep selling stuff to keep investors happy...when nothing of value is left, declare victory and leave
Many well-known CS researchers have left (the then) HP over the past 10 years to other companies (e.g., John Wilkes, Hans Boehm, etc.). So, some people saw early there were problems (though perhaps not due strictly to the recent years).
Poor brainwashed idiots who have been hooked on these piles of unmaintainable Java EE crap (impossible to replace), written by a legion of amateurs coders from outsourcing sweatshops, which everyone is now trying to get rid of. "Java - write once, run away!" is not just a meme - it could be seen.
It is not a coincidence that Oracle "lost interest" in Java EE - the whole ecosystems is a total disaster, the monument of bureaucracy, packer's mindset and human stupidity.
But it seems that NodeJS ecosystem is on track to outperform even this.)
It is not a coincidence that Oracle "lost interest" in Java EE - the whole ecosystems is a total disaster, the monument of bureaucracy, packer's mindset and human stupidity.
But it seems that NodeJS ecosystem is on track to outperform even this.)
A lot of this seems to relate to their UK business - with the timing and all I have to ask is this anything to do with Brexit?
Newsflash: when you make computer hardware, you're still going to make software, because it doesn't work without firmware for those 10 different processors and SoC's on current mainboards...
HP doesn't make them though, just package them.
As far as I'm concerned, the less software made by hardware companies the better. They suck at software, they don't seem to realize that it isn't "built" like hardware is, once it's out it's never updated. We all end up with computers/devices gimped by "value add" crapware.
Apple is the exception that proves the rule.
As far as I'm concerned, the less software made by hardware companies the better. They suck at software, they don't seem to realize that it isn't "built" like hardware is, once it's out it's never updated. We all end up with computers/devices gimped by "value add" crapware.
Apple is the exception that proves the rule.
The big Unix vendors in the 90s were pretty good at both... PA-RISC & HP-UX, SPARC & Solaris, Alpha & Tru64
DEC was also responsible for the AXP port of Windows NT. Compaq pulled the plug right before the Windows 2000 RTM release. That in turn led to the awesome FX!32 tool that could emulate (and then translate) x86 software to the Alpha instruction set. There were cases where the transmogrified software ran faster than it did natively on x86.
They all focused on selling service contracts and not hardware didn't they?
This is talking about Hewlett Packard Enterprise. You are thinking of HP Inc.
... HPE makes hardware too...
Hewlett-Packard, prior to the spit, was a massive company with hundreds of thousands of employees and a portfolio that ranged from home printers and personal computers to enterprise software and hardware and more. It was huge.
HP, Inc - which went out in the split - does PCs and Printers. These are used by both home users and in companies. Did you know some printers get their ink from tanker trucks or are the size of a semi trailer?
Hewlett Packard Enterprise took the other parts which were targeted at big business (sometimes referred to as the global 2000).
HPE is now spinning out the Enterprise Services (ES) division and merging it with CSC. This was previously announced. ES is IT outsourcing. As part of that they write a lot of software. They are IT (bodies) for hire rather than product builders.
This latest announcement is the Software division. Software is written all over HPE. The Software division focuses on software for enterprises, such as Vertica, that is typically divorced from infrastructure.
The remaining part that's HPE is still pretty large and has servers, storage, networking, and a lot more wrapped up in it. All of which has massive amounts of software.
Hope this helps folks who are trying to navigate all the names and their meanings. I'll let others speculate on what all of this means and the motivations behind it.