HPE has finally completed the acquisition of Cray making a supercomputing powerhouse. This deal has been in the works for many months as we noted in HPE to Acquire Cray to Bolster HPC Capabilities. This acquisition marks a major milestone for HPE as it solidifies its place as the high-performance computing leader.
Cray Taking the Lead
Cray (now HPE) has a ton of momentum. It has made major strides in the industry with its Shasta platform and new slingshot interface. What is more, the company says this is increasingly a solution that can be used beyond the traditional HPC space. Generations of HPC systems have made that same promise. With Slingshot built upon Ethernet technology, Cray made a strong design choice to enable that vision.
Shasta has become the go-to platform for the initial Exascale systems in the US including the 1.5 Exaflop Frontier Supercomputer. Indeed, Cray Shasta has won the first three exascale systems in the US and has a combined $1.5 billion USD in bookings for the new platforms immediately making it an important product line for the new company.
Cray Shasta Compute Blade ExampleWith the completed deal, HPE acquired a new technology platform. It will be interesting to see what has happened to the legacy SGI business. Will HPE continue to invest in both platforms or is the market big enough to support two separate businesses? Will HPE be able to keep both teams moving inside the behemoth organization? The human element may be the most important here.
Final Words
Now the hard part begins. HPE has playbooks for post-merger integration. If it is successful, Cray customers will get access to HPE’s larger service and support network along with GreenLake as a service. HPE’s customers will get absolutely cutting edge HPC and AI platforms. What is clear, is that Dell will need to make moves if it wants to be competitive with HPE’s new fervor.
