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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ends First Year on a High Note

In its first year of standalone operations, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is living up to CEO Meg Whitman’s expectations. Hewlett Packard split into two companies in 2015, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) handling the enterprise business and HP Inc taking over the PC and printer business. HPE reported its fourth quarter and full fiscal 2016 […]

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Sean Michael Kerner

Nov 23, 2016

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In its first year of standalone operations, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is living up to CEO Meg Whitman’s expectations. Hewlett Packard split into two companies in 2015, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) handling the enterprise business and HP Inc taking over the PC and printer business.

HPE reported its fourth quarter and full fiscal 2016 year results on November 22. Revenue for the fourth quarter was reported at $12.5 billion, with full year revenue coming in at $50.1 billion.

“During our first year as a standalone company, HPE delivered the business performance we promised, fulfilled our commitment to introduce groundbreaking innovation, and began to transform the company through strategic changes designed to enable even better focus, flexibility and financial performance,” Whitman said during her company’s earnings call.

A key part of HPE’s growth is the company’s Strategic Enterprise Services group, which includes its Helion Managed Cloud platform Revenues for Helion Managed Cloud grew by over 50 percent in the fourth quarter. HPE also announced new versions of its Gen9 Servers and 3PAR StoreServ systems. Additionally HPE acquired SGI, expanding the company’s high performance computing capabilities.

HPE is also optimistic about its growth opportunities in the storage market. Whitman said that Flash-based storage today only comprises 10 percent of the data center.

“We see more running room in our all-flash business,” Whitman said. “We’re introducing new de-duplication technology that should provide some further uplift in our all-flash array, because there has been a gap in our portfolio.”

HPE has also been busy in its first year divesting assets in what the company refers to as ‘spin-merge’ (spinoff/merger) deals. HPE announced a spin-merge deal with CSC in May for HPE’s Enterprise Services business. In September, HPE announced a spin-merge of its software business to MicroFocus.

“Together, these transactions are valued at over $20 billion,” Whitman said. “They will enable us to be more nimble, provide cutting edge solutions, play in higher growth markets, and have an enhanced financial profile.”

Whitman was asked during the earning call about any potential impact on HPE from the U.S election. She responded that there was no direct impact or spending slowdown.

“Actually, we saw a bigger impact of Brexit when the UK decided to leave European Union, because it actually froze purchasing quite broadly across Europe for a bit,” Whitman said. “We didn’t see that in the U.S.”

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist