HPE Buying Cloud Cruiser to Beef Up Flexible Capacity

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in November-December 2016.**

HPE is acquiring Cloud Cruiser, a provider of cloud consumption analytics software.

HPE is one of Cloud Cruiser’s biggest customers. The company already is a key component of HPE’s Flexible Capacity business as it currently licenses Cloud Cruiser’s offerings in its Flexible Capacity service.

In his blog, Scott Weller, HPE’s senior vice president of technology services support, said the acquisition marks additional investment in HPE Flexible Capacity, to further differentiate and strengthen this service.

Flexible Capacity aims to offer customers on-premises IT infrastructure at cloud prices. It allows them to manage IT infrastructure in their own data centers but pay for it as-a-service.{ad}

“Cloud Cruiser’s consumption analytics offerings enable enterprises such as Microsoft, TD Bank, NTT, Ford, KPN and of course HPE to measure, analyze, optimize and control their usage and spend in private, public and hybrid cloud environments,” Weller said. “As a Cloud Cruiser customer, we have seen firsthand the value that Cloud Cruiser’s technology creates by enabling HPE Flexible Capacity to meter and bill for usage of on-premise[s] IT infrastructure in a pay-as-you-go model. By continuing to enhance the Cloud Cruiser platform and SaaS app Cloud Cruiser 16, more tightly integrating it into HPE Flexible Capacity and leveraging the deep domain expertise of the Cloud Cruiser team, we are excited about the opportunity to accelerate the adoption of innovative consumption-based IT offerings and simplify hybrid IT for our customers.”

When the transaction closes, likely in the second quarter, Cloud Cruiser will become a key part of the Data Center Care portfolio within HPE’s technology services support organization. Cloud Cruiser co-founder and CEO David Zabrowski, who served as vice president and general manager of HP’s enterprise computer organization from 1997-2002, will report to Weller.

“Together, HPE and Cloud Cruiser will transform IT organizations, providing the Flexible Capacity solutions to help IT organizations spend less time on day-to-day operations and more time on innovation,” Weller said.

“Cloud Cruiser has enjoyed a strong channel partner strategy since inception and we have grown through our global partners in addition to the direct business model,” Paul Tilston, Cloud Cruiser’s VP of sales and alliances, told us. “We expect to continue leveraging the channel as part of our go-to-market strategy. There are a number of synergies with HPE and Cloud Cruiser, specifically with Microsoft’s Azure business. Cloud Cruiser has a five-year relationship with Microsoft and HPE’s partnership most recently included support for the upcoming Azure Stack services. Additionally, we have regional resell partners which are also tightly partnered with HPE and we expect those will remain strong. Cloud Cruiser will gain from HPE’s global resources and we expect this will benefit both customers and partners alike.”