In a move to bolster its cloud service prowess, HP acquired open source cloud software startup Eucalyptus Systems last week.

Essentially, HP hired Eucalyptus’ entire workforce (which is less than 100 people), along with their CEO Marten Mickos as the Senior VP and head of HP’s cloud computing wing. Mickos will be working directly with HP CEO Meg Whitman, reports a statement on the HP website.

“The addition of Marten to HP’s world-class Cloud leadership team will strengthen and accelerate the strategy we’ve had in place for more than three years, which is to help businesses build, consume and manage open source hybrid clouds,” explains HP CEO Whitman. “Marten will enhance HP’s outstanding bench of Cloud executives and expand HP Helion capabilities, giving customers more choice and greater control of private and hybrid cloud solutions.”

Although the Forrester Wave report for Private Cloud Solutions ranked HP as the leader, Helion still falls behind AWS and IBM as far as revenues go.

“We are absolutely the experts on compatibility between clouds — private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds,” points out Marten Mickos in an interview. “We have developed open source software that is used to move computing workloads between each kind of cloud.” Mickos is expected to lead the HP Cloud organization and help HP Helion grow, based on OpenStack® technology.

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(Image credit: Gary Sauer-Thompson)

HP announced that HP Helion, its open-source cloud computing services portfolio, will become available in over 20 countries around the world in the next two years. The plan is to spend sums exceeding $1 billion to offer OpenStack-based software, offering HP’s existing cloud products, and providing new products and services, such as:

• HP Helion OpenStack Community edition: A free cloud platform suitable for proofs of concept, pilots and basic production workloads. An enhanced commercial edition targeting global enterprises and service providers will be released in the coming months.
• HP Helion Development Platform: A Platform as a Service (PaaS) based on Cloud Foundry, offering IT departments and developers an open platform to build, deploy and manage applications.
• HP’s OpenStack Technology Indemnification Program: Protects qualified customers using HP Helion OpenStack code from third-party patent, copyright and trade-secret infringement claims.
• HP Helion OpenStack Professional Services: A new practice made up of HP’s consultants, engineers and cloud technologists to assist customers with cloud planning, implementation and operation.

OpenStack is a cloud computing project that includes collaboration from players such as NASA, Rackspace, Intel, IBM and VMware. The organization aims to support interoperability between cloud providers and the open-source cloud computing platform is freely available under the Apache 2.0 license.

Martin Fink, executive vice-president and chief technology officer at HP, remarked:

“Customer challenges today extend beyond cloud. They include how to manage, control and scale applications in a hybrid environment that spans multiple technology approaches. HP Helion provides the solutions and expertise customers need to select the right deployment model for their needs and obtain the greatest return for their investment.”

HP has used OpenStack cloud services within the company for the last three years, and has learned that “organizations require solutions that are open, secure and agile.” The firm currently operates more than 80 data centers across 27 countries.

(Image credit: Don Debold)