HPE expands GreenLake and storage offering with $374m acquisition of cloud business

Hewlett Packard Enterprise intends to buy cloud data management and protection firm Zerto

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced its intention to acquire cloud data management and protection business Zerto for $374m.

The move will "accelerate HPE Storage's transformation to a cloud-native, software-defined data services business", HPE says, by expanding its as-a-service GreenLake offering.

"Data is now the most critical asset. With the explosive growth of data at the edge and across hybrid environments, organisations today face significant complexity in managing and protecting their data," said Antonio Neri, President and CEO, HPE.

"Zerto's market-leading cloud data management and protection software expands HPE GreenLake cloud data services, allowing customers to protect their data and rapidly act on insights, from edge to cloud."

Zerto offers disaster recovery, ransomware protection, and data and application mobility across hybrid, multi-cloud environments to more than 350 managed service providers and 9,000 customers, HPE says.

Its solutions will be available as-a-service through GreenLake, which HPE recently revealed several developments to at its Discover conference having previously announced in May that storage would be added to its as-a-service offering.

"With data underpinning digital transformation, customers must manage, protect, and mobilise their data," said Tom Black, senior vice president and general manager of HPE Storage.

"Customers continue to face significant issues managing data complexity across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Zerto further positions HPE to help solve these customer challenges and become the leader in data management and protection through HPE GreenLake cloud services."

The transaction is expected to contribute more than $130 million in run-rate revenue at software gross margins, with approximately one-third of the revenue expected to contribute to HPE's aaS annualised revenue run rate (ARR).

The company plans to fund the acquisition through cash on its balance sheet and is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of HPE's fiscal year 2021.