Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s journey to become a smaller and more manageable company continues.
The technology giant announced a business reorganization on Monday that CEO Meg Whitman said would “simplify” the company and make it “easier to buy from and partner with.”
One of the biggest changes is the upcoming departure of Martin Fink, HPE’s chief technology officer and head of the company’s research arm, Hewlett Packard Labs. Fink, a 30-year HPE veteran, will retire at the end of the year, Whitman said.
Fink helped lead some of HPE’s big technology projects like its muddled foray into cloud computing, and newer initiatives centered on open-source (in laymen’s terms, free) technologies and the Linux operating system. One of Fink’s biggest projects is called “The Machine,” which is HPE’s experimental take on a computing that was detailed in this 2014 Coins2Day interview with Fink.
Recently, Fink said at this year’s RSA cybersecurity conference that its experimental computing system could one day be used to more efficiently analyze corporate networks for intruders.
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Fink’s upcoming departure will probably cast doubts on when The Machine will see the light of day, but Whitman said HPE plans to show a prototype by the end of this year.
“The Machine has been a passion of Martin’s for nearly 10 years,” Whitman wrote. “The prototype will bring The Machine to life and serve as the capstone of Martin’s leadership.”
Whitman also said that HPE (HPE) would merge its Hewlett Packard Labs research arm into its enterprise group, which is focused on selling data center gear. The idea is to better align research projects with products and services that can eventually be sold, she explained. Antonio Neri, executive vice president and general manager of the HPE enterprise group, will lead Hewlett Packard Labs.
As for the restructurings, Whitman wrote that it would consolidate its sales teams into one big global sales unit under its enterprise group. HPE will do a similar reshuffling with its marketing departments and will consolidate staff from e-commerce, product marketing, and customer relations group into one big marketing unit.
Additionally, Whitman said HPE chief customer officer John Hinshaw would leave the company at the end of the year.
All of this corporate restructuring comes after HPE said in May that it would merge and spin off its IT services business unit with Computer Sciences and form a new company.
Analysts and investors hoping that HPE had finished streamlining its complicated and massive business after a lengthy split from its printer and personal computer sibling, HP, Inc. (HPQ) that completed in November, will have to remain patient.
For more about Meg Whitman, watch:
Whitman said that the spinoff of HPE’s IT services business will be finalized in March 2017, so its likely more restructurings may be coming as HPE tries to keep up in a fast changing technology market against cloud computing giants like Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Despite little progress, Whitman voiced optimism.
“During the past few years, we have reignited our innovation engine, rebuilt relationships with customers and partners, and gotten our cost structure in line with our revenue,” wrote Whitman. “Best of all, we are now winning in the marketplace, and that feels really good!”
