HP: We're Not Leaving The Public Cloud Market

Is Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) preparing to exit the public cloud marketplace? Not yet, but the technology giant also has no plans to compete with the market’s heavyweights, either.

Bill Hilf, senior vice president of HP Helion product management, recently indicated that his company is no longer interested in competing against Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google (GOOG) and other public cloud heavyweights.

“We thought people would rent or buy computing from us,” he told The New York Times. “It turns out that it makes no sense for us to go head-to-head.”

However, HP has denied reports that it will exit the public cloud market: “HP is not leaving the public cloud market. We run the largest OpenStack technology-based public cloud in the U.S. This has to do with not competing head-to-head with the big public cloud players,” a company spokesperson told Computer Weekly.

The Palo Alto, California-based technology company launched its Helion cloud portfolio in May and said it would spend more than $1 billion over the next two years on cloud initiatives. Conversely, HP has made several notable changes since that time that may have changed its public cloud strategy.

HP confirmed in October that it would split into two $50 billion, publicly held companies. Both companies are expected to launch Nov. 1.

In addition, Marten Mickos ceded some of his responsibilities as head of HP’s day-to-day cloud operations in February and now focuses on “customer engagement and advocacy and the different communities required to accelerate HP’s progress.”

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Synergy Research Group reported that HP was the leader in private cloud and ranked second among cloud infrastructure providers in the fourth quarter of 2014, but HP also saw its share of the total cloud market fall between the third and fourth quarters.

HP recorded $26.8 billion in net revenue in the fiscal 2015 first quarter, which represented a 5 percent year-over-year decrease.

What are your thoughts on HP’s position in the public cloud marketplace? Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].