HP's Virtualization Expansion (HPQ, VMW, MSFT, CTXS)

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is acquiring LeftHand Networks Inc., a move that takes the company further into hardware for virtualization.  LeftHand provides storage virtualization and iSCSI storage area network solutions to enable mid-size companies and remote offices or branches of large corporations to protect critical business data.  The purchase price is roughly $360 million in cash.

Before you go thinking that this replaces VMware (NYSE: VMW) at H-P, thisactually looks more like a bolt-on acquisition rather than areplacement acquisition.  This appears more on the hardware side, andVMware already is deeply intertwined with H-P in virtualized servers.

Founded in 1999, it has 215 employees and more than 500 resellers anddistributors. H-P noted that LeftHand also has more than 11,000installations across 3,000 different customers.  It delivers scalablestorage software on industry-standard hardware that supports existingtechnology and will extend H-P virtualization solutions tothe mid-market.  H-P wants to help move companies to a storage areanetworks for significantly lower costs.

LeftHand Networks’ claims that its intelligent cloning technology canreduce the amount of disk space required for storage by up to 97%. Its data replication technologywith bandwidth management and fail-over protection is for backup anddisaster recovery operations between remote offices and a centrallocation.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has come out with some free download andcost-based support models for its virtualization.  Citrix Systems(NASDAQ: CTXS) has tried making its XenSource virtualization a rivaloffering to VMware as well, although we have heard very little there onthat effort and its stock has not seen any benefit over the last yearin its efforts.

As with many high growth sectors in software and technology, theleaders of today and tomorrow tend to get established within fairlyshort order in today’s world.

Jon C. Ogg
October 1, 2008