HPE and Cray join forces to power the exascale era

Here are a couple of quotes I like:

• Exascale supercomputers go unfathomably fast. And not everyone needs that kind of speed. But as digital transformation reinvents how businesses operate and diverse workloads converge, everyone will need the technologies that power exascale-class performance.
  
  
• As we enter the exascale era, modern applications are creating the need for applying supercomputing capability to a new class of digital transformation problems. What is the domain of a few national laboratories today is fast becoming a necessity for every enterprise.

I couldn’t agree more. And the fact that these statements came from Cray Inc., a global leader in supercomputing, simply confirms why HPE and Cray agreed to join forces.  Today HPE completed its acquisition of Cray, and I could not be more excited about the opportunities we have together to drive the next generation of high performance computing.

As a premier provider of high-end supercomputing solutions that address customers’ most challenging, data-intensive workloads for making critical decisions, Cray shares our commitment to customers and passion for pushing the boundaries of innovation.

Even more importantly, Cray’s technology and end markets are highly complementary to HPE’s existing HPC portfolio, enabling the combined company to offer enterprises, academic and research institutions and government customers a broad range of solutions coupled with deep expertise to solve their most complex problems.

Together, HPE and Cray are ready to lead the exascale era.  And the market is booming.  By 2021, the HPC market segment along with associated storage and services is expected to grow to approximately $35B, or about 9 percent annually¹. At the top end of the HPC market, exascale systems and technologies are expected to reach $4B by 2024.

That’s no surprise, either. The technologies that power exascale systems for the government like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s supercomputer, El Capitan, will be crucial to organizations of every size and type in this new era of digital transformation as customers look to unlock the power of their data. Enterprises across all industries are experiencing an explosion of data from AI, machine learning and big data analytics, which in turn is driving their interest in HPC. HPE with the addition of Cray will be well-position to help customers of all sizes solve their highly complex processing challenges both today and well into the future.

Acquiring Cray furthers our commitment to supporting customers’ investments in their hybrid IT solutions. As one company, we will deliver even more benefits to our combined customers through a stronger presence across all geographies, a more comprehensive set of solutions, more powerful distribution channels and continued investments in R&D.

That will include such anticipated enhancements as HPC-as-a-Service and AI / ML analytics offerings through HPE GreenLake; a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio of HPC infrastructure to address the full spectrum of customers’ data-intensive needs; and much more. I expect our portfolio across compute, storage, interconnect, software and services will be unsurpassed in this industry.

The addition of Cray also enhances HPE’s position as the leader at the Intelligent Edge, where the most pertinent data is being created and utilized. For instance, the challenges created by the proliferation of IoT and emergence of smart cities will require HPC technologies that address highly complex processing challenges requiring fast network performance, robust storage capabilities and substantial amounts of memory. HPE will be on the forefront on this next frontier. 

We’ll share more details about our integration in the coming months. In the meantime, we welcome Cray’s talented workforce to the HPE family and Pete Ungaro as the GM of the new HPE and Cray combined HPC and AI Business Unit in the Hybrid IT organization. I’m excited to work with the team to drive the next generation of HPC as we continue to advance the way people live and work.

Forward-looking Statements

This post contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HPE and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, any statements regarding the expected benefits and costs of the transaction contemplated by this document; financial projections; any statements concerning the expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products or services; any statements regarding current or future macroeconomic trends or events and the impact of those trends and events on HPE and its financial performance; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits may not materialize as expected; that the integration of the acquisition post-closing may not occur as anticipated; the need to address the many challenges facing HPE's business; the competitive pressures faced by HPE; and other risks that are described in HPE’s SEC reports, including but not limited to the risks described in HPE’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended October 31, 2018, and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and that are otherwise described or updated from time to time in other filings with the SEC. HPE assumes no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

¹ Source: Market data as of October 5, 2018