HPE confirms staff redundancies as it aims to be "nimble"

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has made an undisclosed number of employees redundant in the US following a company restructure.

Among those laid off were employees at Stackato, a service that helps developers to create apps for private, hybrid or public clouds, according to a source speaking to Geekwire. The service is currently being sold to German Linux-distribution provider SUSE, the publication said.

Stackato has over 130 employees across the US and Europe, with around 50 based in offices in Seattle. As many as 100 may lose their jobs, the source told GeekWire although HPE has dismissed rumours that the Seattle site will be shut down, in an email to IT Pro.

"These changes are part of a company-wide strategy to give HPE the needed workforce to be a more nimble customer and partner-centric company," said an HPE spokesperson in the email. They declined to confirm the exact number of layoffs.

Some employees caught in the restructure took to Twitter to express their disappointment. HPE senior engineering manager Vicky Brasseur said: "Today I laid off my entire team. I'm completely gutted. They're the best with whom I've ever worked."

The cloud, server and storage firm formed in 2015 when Hewlett Packard split to form two separate divisions, in an attempt to reduce annual costs.

HP Inc, the other division, which sells PCs and printers, announced up to 4,000 layoffs just last week amidst dwindling demand for PCs.

The latest job losses suggest HPE has struggled in a cloud market dominated by the likes of Amazon and Google. HPE sold off its software business to UK firm Micro Focus last month, and last year closed down its public cloud division, the HP Helion Cloud, after failing to remain competitive.