In the ongoing efforts to lead the world of open source, SUSE has announced the acquisition of OpenStack and Cloud Foundry offerings from HPE. The deal is aimed to bring HPE’s talent as well as technology assets to develop SUSE Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for the enterprise market.
As per the terms of the agreement, HPE will formally name SUSE as its preferred open source partner for Linux, OpenStack and Cloud Foundry solutions. The Nuremberg-based company is additionally set to become a platinum member of the Cloud Foundry Foundation board to enhance its engagement with the community.
“The driving force behind this acquisition is 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 are building our business through a combination of organic growth and technology acquisition,” said Nils Brauckmann, chief executive officer, SUSE.
SUSE is certainly aiming to give a stiff competition to Red Hat through the latest acquisition. However, the deal will also help HPE, which recently decided to spin-merge its software business with SUSE’s parent company Micro Focus, focus on next-generation hybrid cloud solutions.
“We are evolving our investment strategy to focus on developing the next generation 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,” said Ric Lewis, senior vice president and general manager of software-defined and cloud group, HPE.
‘Add more muscle’
Customers predict that the SUSE-HPE deal would uplift the open source world and “add more muscle” to the OpenStack Cloud platform.
“SUSE’s acquisition of HPE talents and technology assets would add more muscle to the OpenStack Cloud by SUSE,” Kalyan Muppaneni, founder and CEO, Pi Datacenters, told Open Source For You. “We believe that this will help enhance SUSE OpenStack capabilities and deliver even superior enterprise cloud solutions to our customers.”
Move to uplift Helion OpenStack and Stackato
The major step taken by HPE does not mean that the enterprise-centric company is leaving the field of PaaS and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or existing the OpenStack and Cloud Foundry market. In fact, HPE is apparently targeted to improve its Helion OpenStack and Stackato solutions through SUSE’s experience.
“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,” stated Lewis.
In September, HPE announced SUSE as its preferred Linux partner. That development came on a public note in the midst of the merger between Micro Focus and HPE’s Software Business Segment.
‘Real win-win’
Market analysts believe that the fresh deal is a “real win-win” for SUSE and HPE and their clients worldwide. “This expanded partnership and transfer of technology assets have the potential to be a real win-win for SUSE and HPE, as well as customers of both companies,” said Ashish Nadkarni, programme director — computing platforms, IDC.
“SUSE has proven time, and again it can successfully work with its technology partners to help organisations 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,” Nadkarni added.
The story has been updated with inputs from a customer.
