HPE swallows cloud consultancy RedPixie

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has gobbled RedPixie, a Brit cloud consultancy and app developer, for an undisclosed sum. The US titan might have given up on selling its own public cloud but is using the Pointnext division – rebranded from Technology Services – to cuddle up to customers and give advice on a living hybrid cloudy …

[sawatts]

A cloud ... in a box!

Ah HPE and clouds.

I tale I often tell is of a proud HPE presentation for a future product which would put a cloud within a single computer.

Far better than those old fashoned servers.

(this was presented with all seriousness)

[Steve Aubrey]

No mention of pixie dust in the story?

Or was that too obvious?

[seanf]

Rinse, repeat (sigh)

Can anybody, anywhere tell me of an acquisition HP has made which did not end in misery for the unfortunate, but enterprising, sods what woz acquired?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Rinse, repeat (sigh)

Tell me any acquisition by anyone that didn't? The nature of the beast is that the acquired are rarely that delighted about things.

[Anonymous Coward]

and in other news

Recruitment Agencies are actively persuing Red Pixie employess in the hope of offering them jobs before HPE lays them off.

{AC as I'm ex HP and still have a pension to draw (one day)}

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: and in other news

Some acquisitions are about people, some are about IP. This is clearly about people (they are a bunch of consultants) so they won't be at risk! Nice attempt at scaremongering though. This is very similar to the CTP acquisition and they're all still around, and doing rather well! (Obviously HPE).

[Nate Amsden]

deja vu?

Didn't HP spin out their services/consulting arm ? Now they are wanting to build a new unit that does something similar?

As for pension, curious what kind of work did you do for HP mister AC ? My father worked for HP for I want to say 20-25 years(perhaps more), he even personally knew the founders, he retired from HP in the mid 90s though have never heard him mention the word pension.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: deja vu?

HPE sold Enterprise Services - EDS and other services organisations that HP bought along the way. This was an outsourcing business and is now part of DXC. Pointnext is the rebranded Technology Services business that was/is a consultancy/ advisory service. HPE is not the company that your father once worked for. That company, sadly, no longer exists.

[gbshore]

Re: deja vu?

Uhhhh... different kind of Consulting expertise... Cloud is what it is about today in a Hybrid world... the Consulting that was jettisoned was of a different nature...perhaps you should understand what was jettisoned and what was acquired but more importantly why. BTW I am ex HP and have notbone Pom Pom....

[returnofthemus]

Cloud is what it is about today in a Hybrid world...

Apart from the fact that HP capitualated when it came to operating a large-scale public cloud, do you seriously believe that the world's largest IT consulting firms are somewhat oblivious to this trend, including DXC

This is classic HP, no sense of direction and still pissing in the wind!

[returnofthemus]

Re: deja vu?

>>Didn't HP spin out their services/consulting arm?<<

Yeah, funny isn't it only gawd knows what they smoke round that boardroom table.

[sanmigueelbeer]

I hope the current employees can find a better job before the everyone gets shown out the door.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh dear

Reminds me of all the SAN vendors HPE bought where customers had chosen not to buy from HPE and ended up with them anyway. They will probably never realise that improving your goods and services is the way to get customers, not buying up all the alternative sources!

At least a few people will get rich off the deal, and probably go on to create another new company to compete with HPE...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh dear

RedPixie haven't been a competitor of HPE so that makes no sense. This is a complementary acquisition, HPE bringing in skills it currently doesn't have.

[Anonymous Coward]

HP & their cloud message

I worked at HP around 2012 and watched in bemusement at their rather schizophrenic cloud messages.

On the one hand they seemingly wanted to rush into this brave new world and commit to it - although on the face of it only by rebranding staff departments and not allowing them (their staff) to talk to customers. On the other hand they were working on offerings that would crush the competition but never actually appeared. Or maybe they did, after I left.

Fast forward 6 years and they still seem to be as confused as they were then.

[ManMountain1]

Re: HP & their cloud message

The future is hybrid. HPE has the skills to help you get there, manage your hybrid supply chain once you're there and provide you with the remaining infrastructure you're going to need. It's not rocket surgery.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: HP & their cloud message

Re: ManMountain1 "HPE has the skills to help you get there"

You missed the joke icon there

[ManMountain1]

Re: HP & their cloud message

They do now buddy. Both CTP and RedPixie are top of the tree for those skills.

[iana]

Re: HP & their cloud message

Lol - I also thought it was a joke especially with the 'rocket surgery' tag. Classic HPE - let's do both badly.

[GSTZ]

Once upon a time ...

... and this was of course long before the big splitting of HP into HPE and HP Inc (thus separating the PC and printer business from "real" IT stuff), HP was the world's largest IT vendor. They had everything from end user devices and networking gear over servers and storage to services, consulting and software. At that time, they had the potential to set a new standard that could have dominated the market, just like SNA dominated in the 70's and 80's. This could of course only have happened if that new standard would have provided significant benefits to IT users, such as higher reliability or security - things that are badly needed in today's IT.

However, HP did not have the kind of leadership and enough phantasy to envision such bold ideas. Like everybody else, they prayed to Excel and the existing standards, essentially competing on price - a fight they simply could not win. When simply cutting some fat did not help any more, they started cutting off their arms and legs ...

[paulbee]

I bet HPE due diligence didn't pick up on the number of contractors used by redpixie - you can't tie them in... When the founder and CEO Simon Buller got pushed out / left last year - it speaks volumes for those remaining. Really only a handful of "good" employed and they are not in the management team.